Watching Over You
by thepastisthepast
Summary: Kouzumi!with mimato and ryuruki.you could be leading an ordinary life, but what happens when u find yourself in a strange world. summary sux really it does, pls read to find out wht its really about.pls dont stop at the first two chapters cuz i no theyre
1. the bad news

First of all this is my first fan fiction story so I hope you'll like it.

These are some things you should know before I start this fic:

-the characters are from all the digimon seasons.

-it's pg-13 just to be on the safe side.

-don't expect all the characters to have the same personalities as they do in the series.

-the couplings in this fic are mainly kouzumi, followed by mimato, and ryuruki, although the fic is mostly concentrated on the plot more than the couplings.

Well on with the fic cuz I know most of you people probably don't even waste your time on my blabbering.

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon or the characters, or anything …, well except for the story.

Watching Over You

Chapter One: The Bad News,

_You may not know,_

_I'm there with you,_

_Protecting you,_

…_Watching over you…_

"…the end", Izumi said, "So you see Ayame, everyone has a special person who watches over them forever". "Wow, I never knew that Izumi, who is watching over you then?" Ayame asked. "Hmm... I don't know yet, but when I do you're sure be the first to know who it is." "Promise?" "I promise, and you know what? I'll be the one who will watch over you". " Really? Well then, can I be the one who watches over you until you find that special person?" "Sure, why not". "Yeah! I'm going to sleep now. Good night Izumi". "Goodnight Ayame". Izumi turned off the lights and leaped over to her bed and went to sleep.

Izumi was originally an only child, but her parents wanted to adopt another daughter who turned out to be Ayame. Izumi didn't mind partly because she had felt lonely most of the time, and partly because she loved Ayame more than anything in the whole wide world. They did almost everything together, and they shared their secrets even though Izumi was 16 and Ayame was only 8. They didn't look anything like each other though, for Izumi had long blond hair, enchanting green orbs and white skin, while Ayame had short black hair, baby blue eyes and pale skin.

But there was one thing that Izumi was keeping away from Ayame and from every one else. She was having these strange dreams every night, but she could never quite remember what they were about. All she knew was that they had a strong and negative effect on her, since she would always wake up in sweat and would be breathing very sharply and frequently. She decided that she didn't want to worry anyone with what she convinced herself was just her imagination. But she knew she was wrong and that this was probably something serious but she also didn't want to believe it. That night she relived the dream once more. If she had known what was waiting for her in the morning, she would have wished she was trapped in that dream forever.

She woke up in sudden shock the next morning, and she desperately tried to remember what she had dreamt but to no avail. She went to the bathroom and washed her face and took a quick shower. She got out and dressed in a lavender top and blue jeans, and blow dried her hair. Then she raced downstairs for breakfast. She noticed that her parents looked kind of gloomy for some reason, and then when she was about to ask what was bugging them, her mother got up and said that she was going to take Ayame to school. Izumi was about to leave as well, but her father stopped her. "Izumi, there's something important I have to tell you," Izumi prepared herself for the worse because she could tell from her father's expression that he was about to give her bad news, but there was nothing in the whole entire world that could have prepared her for what he was about to say next. "Izumi…, Ayame is dying." That sentence seemed to have broken through all of her defenses. It was almost as if her life had come to an end.

So what did you think so far? It's probably boring now but I assure you that it will get MUCH better in the chapters to come.


	2. you're kidding me, right?

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon or the characters or anything else that belongs to someone else.

Chapter two: You're kidding, right?

_You may not know,_

_I'm there with you,_

_Protecting you,_

…_Watching over you_...

"You're kidding me, right?" Izumi asked desperately but with false hope. "No, I'm not. Remember last month when she went

to have a doctor's checkup? Well we got the results yesterday evening, and it turned out that she has a very rare disease that

has no known cure till now. You might say that she looks fine now, but the doctor said that once she starts to look sick we

must take her to a hospital right away, for she will only have about less than a week left to live." Izumi began to laugh very

awkwardly after a minute of silence. "Izumi are you alright?" her father asked her worriedly, but she just continued to laugh

even more awkwardly. She grabbed her bag, and ran out the door still laughing.

When she got to school she began to laugh again. Her friends asked her what was so funny, and she would just tell them,

"Didn't you know? Ayame is dying!" and then she would laugh even harder. They would laugh with her assuming it was just a

joke. But when she began to interrupt classes with sudden giggles, some began to become worried. Then in English, the last

period, she began to laugh again. Only this time she didn't stop. "Izumi! What's so funny! I've heard from several teachers of

your strange behavior! Would you mind explaining yourself to the class?!" her English teacher Mrs. Honey screamed at her.

This time, her laughter was accompanied by trembling. Then she looked up at her teacher horrified yet laughing face and

began' "Haven't you heard?" her voice was trembling now, and tears were forming in her eyes, "Ayame … she's ...ddd…

dying..." She broke out into tears, and let her heart cry out all the pain she felt regardless of all of the eyes that were on her.

She didn't care about what they thought anymore. Nothing mattered to her anymore. If Ayame was going to die then her life

wouldn't have anymore meaning to it. "Izumi", Mrs. Honey addressed her with sympathy. "Why don't you go with Amaya to

wash you face and calm yourself down? I think you've had a rough day". She nodded silently and followed her best friend

Amaya to the washroom.

Izumi followed Amaya to the girl's washroom, then stopped in front of the sink and stared blankly at it. "Can you believe it

Amaya? She's really dying…" she said after some time. Amaya looked at her best friend with sorrowful eyes. She didn't

know what to say to her, and then she finally asked in a soft tone, "Izumi, why were you laughing about it before?" When she

didn't answer, she wished she had never asked, but then Izumi suddenly blurted, "I couldn't believe it Amaya, I just didn't

want to…, I thought if I just pretended it was some nasty joke it would be easier to cope with.., but I was wrong! It just

made things harder and worse!", then she broke down in tears again. Amaya looked down at her friend pitifully, then bent

down and said in a soothing voice, "Oh Izumi you mustn't cry, you'll just scare Ayame. You must be strong for her, your and

everyone's sake. Wash your face now and calm down before the bell rings, okay?" Izumi looked up at her friend's sincere

eyes, then smiled and said, "Okay…thanks Amaya. You're a true friend". Amaya smiled back.

As the days went by, Izumi kept a forced smile on her face. She was still trying to convince herself that this was just one of

those nightmares that you can't escape, but when Ayame finally had to be sent to the hospital her faith began to fade away.

Five days passed after Ayame had been put in the hospital. Izumi was at school now. It was recess and she was talking to

Amaya with a gloomy face. "I visited Ayame yesterday", she said to Amaya. "Really, what happened?" "It was terrible…'

(FLASHBACK)

Izumi was sitting in the chair beside Ayame's bed and held her hand. Ayame looked absolutely terrible. She had many cords

attached to her body, and her skin was very pale, with hints of light purple and blue.

"Izumi…" Ayame said weakly. Izumi held her hand more tightly, but gently, and said, "Yes Ayame?"

-"Are you mad at me?"

-"What? Why would I be mad at you sweetheart?"

-"Because I broke my promise."

-"Huh? What promise?"

-"I told you that I would watch over you until you find your special person, but…, I won't be able to a...a...after I dd…die."

Tears formed in Izumi's eyes. She couldn't believe it. Why did someone so young, innocent and pure hearted have to die.

This thought angered her. She looked at Ayame with serious eyes and said, "You're not going to die Ayame, I'm the one

who's supposed to be watching over you and protect you, not the other way around. I will make sure you live a long and

happy life. You will survive this disease, I promise." Ayame smiled faintly, and then drifted off into a deep sleep.

Izumi smiled sadly at Ayame's now sleeping body. '_She looks so helpless'_, Izumi thought, then she silently left the room, and

saw a small group of doctors standing in the hallway talking silently among themselves. "…such a shame she has to go through

all that pain at such a young age…" she heard one of them say. She felt her face heat up and her earlier anger increase as she

walked up to them. "You're all failures!" she spat at them. They all lowered their heads sadly, and didn't make any sign that

they were going to retaliate. "It's your fault she's going to die! You're the ones who should find a way to cure her, not me!"

she screamed at them, and turned and ran out of the sick place.

(END FLASHBACK)

It began to rain lightly outside, so they began to walk back towards the school. "I shouldn't have said that to them, it's not

their fault she's dying, it's mine". Amaya was angry now. "Izumi, it's not your fault! You have to stop blaming yourself all the

time. It's nobody's fault. She's going to die and you can't change that! You have to put an end to your weaknesses, before

your wounds become too deep, beyond repair. You've got to move on with your life and have fun, not fall into all of its

holes!". '_Great time for your riddles, Amaya_', Izumi thought angrily. "Why do you have to make things harder? Can't you

see I have enough on my shoulders already! Why can't you be a good friend for once?!" she shouted at her. But the moment

the words came out, she regretted them greatly. Amaya made a hurt face, and then walked away. "Wait Amaya! I didn't

mean to…" But Amaya just continued to go away. '_Well who needs her anyway!_' she thought angrily, '_she's just a no _

_good…_', but then someone interrupted her thoughts. "Izumi, there you are! Your mother just called. She said that you are

needed at the hospital right away. She said it was urgent", a teacher told her. Have being brought back to reality; she

wondered what could be so urgent at the hospital. Then in sudden realization, she exclaimed, "Ayame!", and began to run to

the front gates. She didn't bother to go to the office to sign out since she was too afraid that she was out of time. She ran

blindly through the rain as fast as she could. And desperate as she was, it was sort of normal for her not to notice the two faint

lights that were heading towards her. '_I'm so sorry Ayame,…I've broken my promise'_, those thoughts were the last things

that passed through her head, before her world blacked out.

I don't know if you guessed it yet or not, but the REAL story starts in the next chapter. Please review to tell me what you

really think of it.


	3. the chosen one

Thankyou CrAzY-SiLLy-Me and Sakura2387 for your reviews and I'm glad that you liked it. Sorry it took me so

long to update, but I had and still have exams, but I decided to put this chapter up so you don't have to wait so

long. Oh, and thanks for pointing out the spacing thing crazy, I tried to fix them but they turned out weird. Well I

made sure the spacing was okay this time, but if it isn't then its not my fault. Well on with the fic!

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon or any of the characters.

Chapter Three: The Chosen One,

_You may not know,_

_I'm there with you,_

_Protecting you,_

…_Watching over you…_

"Ughh…", Izumi stirred as she began to slowly open her eyes. '_Where am I_ ?', she questioned herself as her view

came to focus. She was looking at a beautiful green forest like none she had seen before. It had many trees growing

very close to each other, with rays of sunshine passing in between them. There was a clearance ahead of her, which

lead to a wide field of various kinds of flowers and other strange plants. It somehow seemed so magical and

enchanting, and different in a way than all the forests she had seen. She held her breath as she gazed around her

surroundings, for she felt that the place was too fragile and that it might all disappear if she took a single breath. As

she looked around something caught her eye. In the clearance, which was about 100m away from her, was a little

blonde headed girl. She was sitting by a patch of flowers making a garland of flowers and a young boy with long

black hair around the same age laying down on the grass on his back looking up to the clear sky. Sitting beside

them was a beautiful female figure that had wings coming out of her back. '_Wait, wings coming out of her back?_',

she rubbed hers eyes to make sure her vision wasn't playing tricks on her, but when she opened her eyes again, the

girl, the boy and the strange woman figure were gone. '_Now I'm sure that I'm going crazy'_, she thought ,but then

she felt great pain flowing through her head. She let out a soft sign of pain and clutched her head tightly, but the pain

was too much for her to handle. She watched in pain as her surroundings, yet once again, faded away into

nothingness.

* * *

"Is she alright?"

"Yes, she just lost consciousness. I'm really glad you brought her here, Auron."

"Is she the one?" Auron asked.

"Yes she is. I'm glad you found her before the Queen's followers did. But you mustn't tell anyone, for if the word

spreads, the Queen will have us under hot pursuit, you understand me, right?"

"Of course, I'm surprised you question my loyalty, princess."

"Oh no, please forgive me sir Auron, I most certainly trust you with my own life. In fact, I will give you the task to

protect her on our journey, I'm sure you agree." the princess replied.

"I would be greatly honored your highness."

* * *

Izumi woke up to find herself in a very comfortable bed. She was in a very big and beautiful room; in fact it was the

biggest room she had ever been in. Part of her mind was wondering where the hell she was, while the other half was

just marveling the beauty of the room.

"So you've finally decided to wake up.", a voice from her left startled her. She turned to see a man who looked to

be in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a long red jacket and was wearing sunglasses. He also had a scar across

his face. She began to panic now, and the only things running through her mind were, '_Where the hell am I?_', and,

'_what does this creep what from me?! Is he going to kill me? Or worse! Make me his slave! What on earth is_

_going on here? I hope this is that dream I'm always having, and I'm going to wake up any minute._'

Her fear must have been written all over her face, because the guy's face softened quickly, and then he said in a

gentle tone "You needn't be afraid. I will not harm you. The princess will be on her way here soon."

She felt herself relax by his words, and somehow knew that she could completely trust this guy even though she just

met him. "Huh? What princess and where am I?" she asked politely.

"Princess Mimi and you're in Memo, in the Yellow Kingdom to be precise." he answered her.

"Huh?"

"The princess will answer your questions, just be patient." he ordered.

She was very impatient but decided to obey him for her own good. She waited for the princess to come, and

wandered where Memo was on the world map, but she was sure she never heard of the place and she paid very

good attention in geography. '_Maybe it's not on the world map ye_t', she thought, but then there was a light knock

on the door and a beautiful young teen walked in the room. She had long chestnut brown hair and brown eyes. Her

figure was slender and tall. She was wearing a long pink dress and pink slippers. She looked like she was about a

year or two older than she was. Izumi guessed that she was the princess even though she wasn't wearing a crown.

"I'm glad you've finally awoken. I'm Princess Mimi. Can you tell me your name please?"

Izumi hesitated at first and looked at the man beside her for guidance. He smiled and gave her a brief nod. She

turned back to the princess and said, "My name's Izumi. Where am I and what am I doing here?"

"Well to begin with," the princess started, "You are in my kingdom, and you're here because you're the chosen

one."

"I have no idea what you're talking about!", she said back bewildered, "Could you please start from the beginning,

like where Memo is on the map and how I got here?".

The princess frowned, and then replied, "Memo is the Name of this world, and it's the whole map."

"What are you talking about?! This is called Earth."

The princess frowned once again, "I'm sorry but I've never heard of it before, maybe you hit your head on

something out there."

"I didn't hit my head on anything."

"Well then if you really came from where you call earth, then how did you get here?" the princess asked a little

rudely, beginning to get impatient with this younger girl. Izumi was getting pretty mad at the princess as well. This

started a quarrel.

-"Hey, I was the one who asked you that!"

-"Well how am I supposed to know, it's not like a brought you here. You're the one who came on your own!"

-"I did not! I was running to the hospital because Ayame was dying, and the next thing I know I'm laying in a

forest, and now I'm laying here."

After saying that, a horrible feeling crept inside her. '_Oh no! Ayame! How could I have forgotten', _she thought

painfully. Her feelings must have reflected on her face because the princess didn't shout back this time. Instead she

said with sincere sympathy, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be fighting with you like this. It seems like you've been through

a lot. Is there anyway I could make it up to you?"

"I just want to go home", Izumi replied.

Mimi frowned, "I'm sorry but I can't do that."

They sat in silence for a while, then the guy behind her spoke up, "Maybe if she fore fills the prophecy, she will be

sent back to where she's from".

The princess looked delighted, "Yes you're probably right Auron!"

Izumi looked confused, "What are you talking about? What prophecy?"

The princess sat down in a chair, and then said, "There is a prophecy that says that one day the chosen one will

appear. And he will alone have the power to combine the five magic stones and the supreme stone into the pure

stone which has the power to defeat the High Queen, save the digimon, and restore all of Memo back to the way it

was before the High Princess passed away."

Izumi cocked her head in confusion, '_What the hell is she saying! This is all some fairytale. Everyone knows _

_there's no such thing as magic and what the hell are digimons?!_' "Do you really expect me to believe this

fairytale of yours?" she said to the princess in disbelief.

"You should because you're the chosen one." Auron said. As much as she seemed to trust this guy, Auron, she still

couldn't buy any of this nonsense. "I can't believe this." she stammered and thought to herself, '_Man, this is too _

_real to be a dream. I need to get back to see Ayame before…_' she didn't want to continue that thought, so she

looked up to Mimi to escape it. The princess took out a sting necklace with a yellow stone attached to it. As the

princess brought the stone closer to Izumi, it began to glow. Izumi stared unbelievably at the stone.

"How is it doing that?" she asked amazed.

"It glows in the presence of the chosen one." Auron responded. She looked up to him and saw the seriousness in

his eyes.

The princess put the necklace back under her dress, and then said to Izumi, "Please, you must help us." Izumi

looked at her with sorrowful eyes, "I really don't think I'm the one you're looking for.", she said.

"The stone never lies, and besides, it could be your only means home." said Auron. Izumi sighed and thought, '_I _

_guess they're right, I have to go through with this prophecy if I want to return back home._'

"Well fine then. I guess I have nothing to lose anyway". But she knew very well that she did or had. Ayame was

probably dead now. She had broken her promise to her.

The princess beamed with happiness, while Auron gave a brief smile.

"But you'll have to repeat that prophecy again because I got just about nothing from the whole thing." she said

gloomily.

The princess stood up still happily and said to her, "First you should get some rest because we have a lot of

preparations to make tomorrow. Our journey will be long and hard. You will need all the rest you can get. Ill fill you

in on more things on the way.", then to sir Auron, "Come Auron, we must let her rest."

Then before Izumi could say another word, they were on their way out of the room. '_Sleep… sure what a nice _

_thing to do now. I'm in some strange world and I'm really going to sleep. I let Ayame down to save this _

_world… I'm too much an idiot to have the right to sleep…to have the right to be alive now actually…_'

* * *

_I promised you I would be there,_

_I promised you I was going to protect you,_

_I never saw this coming,_

_Please forgive me…_

Hoped you liked it!

Just a few notes: Auron is from ff-x, I thought he matched the role I wanted so I put him in this fic, but that doesn't make this a crossover.

Memo is the digital world, and I decided to call it that because in this story, people rule the digital world and it wouldn't sound right if I called it 'the digital world', if u get what im saying.

Well anyway please review to tell me what you think of it so far, and I accept flames although I don't hope to get any.

Well to next chapter…c ya!


	4. preparations

Okay, I finally finished my exams, so here's chapter three, and thanks to everyone who reviewed, and before I start I'm going to answer your questions:

Hikari&Takeru4ever: well if you mean that it has all the characters from the four seasons, then my answer is no. it only has Izumi, Kouji, Mimi, Yomato,

Rika, and Ryo. I'm sorry if that disappoints you but maybe ill write an all season fic when I'm finished this one for you, but no promises.

CrAzY-SiLLy-Me: they'll show up soon, as the story develops, I think maybe by chapter six they'll all be in it.

Okay now on with the fix!

-----------------------------------------------

Watching Over You,

Chapter four: Preparations

_You may not know,_

_I'm there with you,_

_Protecting you,_

…_Watching over you_…

----------------------------------------------

That night, Izumi had a hard time falling asleep. With Ayame haunting her thoughts, and her being in an entirely strange and different world, who could blame her.

Even when she did finally fall asleep, she didn't find rest there. Instead she found that strange nightmare waiting for her, only this time it was so much more realistic

to the degree that she began to scream in her sleep. What she saw and felt was so terrible that she would never forget it ever. Or so she thought…

"Ahhhh…!" Izumi screamed as she woke up the next morning. Tear were in her eyes, her head was pounding, her heart was racing, and she felt great pain in her

back. She could hardly even breathe now. She had never felt so scared in her life before, but to her dismay, or maybe to her relief, she couldn't remember what she

had seen in her dream, or should I say her nightmare.

She stayed in her place for a while to calm herself down. As soon as she felt okay she looked around her a noticed a breakfast tray on the table beside her bed. It

looked delicious yet very strange, and was accompanied by a glass of water. She picked up the glass, took a small sip, and then immediately swallowed the rest

down. '_It tastes so pure. If the water tastes this good then I cant wait to try the food. Maybe there really is magic in this world…_'

(FLASHBACK)

-"Hey Izumi, do believe in magic?"

-"Oh come on Ayame, we both know that there's no such thing."

-"You're wrong for once Izumi, there is magic. I just know there is. I wonder what food would taste like if it were made of magic."

-"Probably not so good. Don't put so much faith in magic though Ayame, because it could… eat you…"

Izumi began tickling her and then she tickled her back and they laughed happily together until they no longer could.

(END FLASHBACK)

That memory brought back her inner pain, and made her lose her appetite. She stared at her food and thought painfully, '_I don't deserve to taste this. Ayame_

_does, not me. But she never will, and it's all my fault!_' She began to cry again. She felt so weak and powerless. She got out of her bed, wiped her tears, and

approached the door. 'So I'm here to solve these weird people's problems. Why does that sound so ironic? As if I don't have enough problems of my own…'

She opened the door to go look for the princess, and said, "Please forgive me Ayame.", and stepped out the room. "Who's Ayame?" a deep male voice asked

her.

"Auron! You scared me! What are you doing here?!"

"You didn't answer my question yet", he replied.

Izumi frowned and looked away before answering, "She's my sister. She had a little time left to live, and I was on my way to see her for one last time, but then I

found myself here! I promised her she would be alright and that she would live, but now she's dead! And it's al my fault!"

There was silence as she fought back her tears of both sadness and anger. Then after a while Auron said, "She's not dead."

Izumi turned her head to face him and asked him in an almost harsh way, "What, how can you say that? There's no way she could still be alive!"

"One year here in Memo is one hour on earth, so one month here would be about five minutes there. That means if she was still alive when you were on earth

then there's a 99.9 chance that she's still alive." he replied calmly, avoiding her eye.

Her face began to light up as soon as his words focused in her mind. 'So there is really a chance that I'll see Ayame again! Oh yeah! I better fore fill this

prophecy of theirs fast, for the faster I do, the sooner I'll get back to Ayame again!... Wait a sec…'

"You said earth! I thought that you never heard of it."

"I wasn't the one who said that. Enough questions now, the princess is waiting for us." he said as he began to make his way down the long corridor.

"Wait!" Izumi shouted to him, "Just answer this: How come you know about earth, but everyone else doesn't?".

He stopped, kept his back facing her, closed his eyes and answered with a hint of sorrow in his voice, "Because I'm from there." He stayed in his spot for a brief

moment, and then he opened his eyes and continued walking.

Izumi, clueless of his background, was confused by both his answer and reaction, for they made a thousand questions race through her head like: What was he

doing here, how he got here, why he seemed upset about it…etc. She was driven out of her thoughts when he turned around and said, "Aren't you coming?" She

quickly nodded and followed him down the hall. She decided to question him later, for now he didn't seem in the right mood.

Izumi followed Auron down long staircases, some of which were spiral, past many rooms, and through great halls. She marveled the place as she walked past

portraits, plants, and statues. It was beautiful. Too beautiful for her to believe it was real. It was like the dream palace she had always dreamed of. She snapped

back to reality as they reached their destination.

They stopped in what seemed to be a large arena. The place was somewhat dark, so Izumi had to slightly squint in order to see what was ahead of her.

"You made good timing; we will be leaving in about half an hour."

Izumi recognized the voice to the princess. She walked closer to make out her figure. She wasn't wearing a dress as she had been the previous day, but a pair of

girl's army pants and a green t-shirt. She wore her hair up in a neat ponytail.

"Where are we going anyways?" Izumi asked.

"My plan is to go to Prince Ryo's palace first, and then to Prince Kouji's castle where Princess Rika and Prince Yomato with meet us. Then after that we'll all

decide what to do next."

"Uhh…, exactly how many princes and princesses are there anyways?"

"No time for questions now. You can ask all you want when we start our journey."

The princess walked over to one of the dungeon walls and took a sword and strapped it on her back. Then she took something out of her pocket and handed it

to Izumi.

"Take this and keep it with you at all times, because we never know when we will be attacked."

Izumi looked at the object she had been given. It was a small 5 inch black metal bar.

"What am I supposed to do with it?" she asked.

"Defend yourself with it, what else?" replied the princess.

Izumi looked at the piece of metal that lay in her hands confusedly. 'How_ on earth can you defend yourself with a piece of metal? Well I'm not exactly on_

_earth am I? There's probably some kind of trick to it I guess. But what is it?_' Auron must have guessed what she was thinking, for he then told her, "Put it out

in front of you and give it a little squeeze."

She gave him a questioning look, but did as he ordered. As soon as she did that, the piece of metal expanded into a 3 foot bar. Izumi gasped and threw the bar

out of her hand in surprise. The princess began to laugh and Auron smirked at her sudden reaction.

"That wasn't funny." Izumi said folding her hands and turning her head to the side.

"Whatever you say, oh chosen one", Mimi said handing the bar back to her.

"Oh cut it out", she replied.

"So do you know how to use it?" Auron asked her.

"Huh? Oh this. Yeah I took a few self defense classes last year, so I shouldn't have any problem in using it for defending myself, but I'm not so sure

about attacking.", she replied.

"Well that's good enough. Maybe Auron can teach you some attacking moves on the way. Think you can handle that Auron?"

"Of course. But I think it's best if we leave now, since she already knows how to use it in defense."

"Yeah you're right. That saves us more time. Go get the camouflage cloaks so we have less risk to be seen."

"Affirmative.", he replied before heading back up the stairs.

Izumi began to look around the dungeon now that her view had focused. It looked like a very big room made out of rock. There was moss between cracks in the

walls, and there were all kinds of weapons and armor either hanging on the wall or on shelves. She stopped her gazing when she felt a set of eyes on her. She turned

to the princess and found her staring at her in an odd way.

"What? Is there something on my face?" she asked while pointing to her face.

"Huh?" the princess asked in surprise then quickly said, "Oh no, there's nothing!"

"Then why were you staring at me like that?"

"Oh uhh, it's just that uhh…" she stammered nervously, "…Your clothes! Yeah that's right!"

"Huh?" Izumi asked confusedly. She looked at herself from top to bottom. She was wearing a purple sweater, white Capri pants, white socks and purple

sneakers. Her long blond hair was tied up in a high ponytail with two chin-length strands lying astray to outline her lovely face.

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Oh um …nothing. I mean will you be comfortable wearing them?" she asked rather awkwardly.

'_What?! What's wrong with them? Why wouldn't I be comfortable in them? It's not like I'm wearing a skirt or something fancy!_' she thought still

confused.

When she never answered the princess gave a sigh that sounded relieved and then said, "Never mind."

Izumi looked back up at the princess and was going to question her again, but then the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs was heard.

Auron emerged into view wearing a camouflage cloak and approached the two young teens. He handed each one of them a cloak and then waited for them to put

them on. When they both had them on, the princess went over to the center of the room and opened a trapdoor in the floor.

"We will go through here first. It will give us a good start without being spotted by the queen's followers."

Izumi and Auron walked over her and looked down. It was some kind of deep tunnel.

"Wait. How am I supposed to make this bar small again, because it will be a lot easier to climb down there without having to carry it in my hand.", Izumi asked.

"Tickle it softly in the very middle", replied Auron.

Izumi raised a brow but did it anyhow. The bar automatically returned to its formal size once again.

Mimi looked at her smiling and said, "Your journey begins here oh chosen one. You will face many dangers and difficulties on the way and maybe other things

both good and bad. Do you except?"

Izumi looked at the smiling princess. '_So this is where it all begins. I have to go through with it for everyone, especially for Ayame. I will do it no matter_

_how hard it will be'_. She smiled back at the princess and replied, "I do. This will be the promise I will not break."

And with that they all entered the tunnel. The trapdoor slammed shut as their journey began.

------------------------------------------------------------

Returning to the beginning again,

To make the promise again,

To make it come true,

In order to make it up to you…

Watching Over You…

* * *

**Well that's it for this chapter. In the following chapter most of Izumi's questions will be answered, so stay tuned…lol! Well see you next chapter, and tell me what you think so far, cuz you opinion really matters to me. C ya!**


	5. and so it begins

Thanks to all who reviewed, and sorry for the wait, but I had my reasons. Anyways this is the last chapter… of this year! lol! In this chapter

most of Izumi's questions will be answered as I said in the previous one.

Hope you had a good year and this is some advice from me before I start the next chappie: if you really want to see, you must believe, but you

should really believe not just repeat after what your friends or parents think or do. So put good thought into your beliefs to make sure you're

on the right track, for then and only then will you be able to open your eyes to life.

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon or the characters (same goes for the previous chapter since I forgot to say this)

On with the fic!

Watching Over You

Chapter five: And So It All Begins

_You may not know,_

_I'm there with you,_

_Protecting you,_

…_Watching over you_…

* * *

The trap door slammed behind them as they climbed down a rope ladder, Mimi first, Izumi second, and Auron the last. When they reached

the bottom Mimi and Auron lit three torches and passed one to Izumi. Izumi took the torch and looked around her. There were four different

pathways in different directions.

"So which way are we going?" Izumi asked.

"This way", Mimi said taking a path. Izumi and Auron followed close by. "It will take us about a day to get to the end of this tunnel. It will lead us

to the borders of my kingdom. We will rest there, and then continue a day's walk till we get to the borders of the Blue Kingdom. Prince Ryo

should be waiting for us at the end of his tunnel, which we will go through until we reach his palace. Then after that we will head for Prince Kouji's castle."

"Okay I think I got it. So now will you answer my questions?" Izumi asked.

"Yes you can ask all you want now. Auron why don't you take lead so I can fill her in on everything?"

Auron silently walked ahead with no objections, while the two teens followed.

"So tell me about this prophecy again."

"Well I think I should start from the very beginning to make sure you get it all. It's a long story, so get comfortable."

"I'm as comfortable as can be", Izumi replied sarcastically.

The young princess giggled and then began her tail. "Well lets see… where do should I start… okay, so you see along time ago, Memo was a very

wonderful place and everyone was happy. The land was, and still is, made up of six kingdoms: The Pure Kingdom, the Black Kingdom, the

Green Kingdom, the Red Kingdom, the Blue Kingdom, and the Yellow Kingdom. The king and queen of all Memo ruled the pure kingdom.

They had only one daughter and she was very precious to them. All of the problems began about ten years ago. There was a group of deaths of

some of the kings and queens. The high king was one of them, although they were not sure of what. The king of the red kingdom was held

responsible for all of their deaths, but I'm not sure why, and the high queen sent guards to get him, but he somehow slipped away from them and

disappeared. No one has heard of him until today. But as time passed by the high queen ordered everyone to forget about all of their troubles

and move on. Everything was restored to its natural state, and happiness filled the land once again, that is until the big tragedy occurred about

six years ago. No one knows for sure what happened, but the high princess passed away. There are rumors that she was very sick and suffered

from a deadly disease; also that the red king came and killed her. But I don't think so, because what ever the reason was, the high queen developed

a hating for digimon, and wants to destroy them all, but if she does that memo will never be the same, for the digimon are the source of happiness

here. Taking away the digimon would be taking away the people's happiness, but the queen doesn't care. She said that the digimon took away here

happiness so it will make no difference if they are gone. Everyone lost hope, until we were told of a person who will come into the picture to save

the land. This person is also known as the chosen one. We were told that he would use all of the five magical stones and supreme stone together to

get the pure stone which he needs to get in order to face the queen and save the digimon. Once the queen found out about this she locked away all

of the digimon away and made all of the minor kings and queens go to stay at her palace, and sent her followers to watch all of the land and wait for the

chosen one. Till now she hasn't destroyed the digimon because she said she wanted to get rid of the chosen one in front of them so that they can suffer

more. Are you keeping up with me?"

"I think so but it's kinda confusing. So in short the queen wants to kill the digimon because her daughter died and I'm supposed to save them?"

"Close enough. I think that answered most of you're questions. Am I right?"

"Well yeah but it only brought more."

"Well how about you ask later because my mouth is all dry from talking and walking at the same time."

"Fine with me. I think I have to give my mind a rest anyways, because I think that was more complicated than all those math classes I took." Izumi said, then

they both began to laugh, and continued walking along the path.

After about an hour of non-stop walking in silence Izumi finally spoke up. "Can we take a short break now, cuz I'm really hungry and tired." She looked

at the other two and noticed that the princess only looked a little tired while Auron looked no different than he did to begin with. She felt a little embarrassed

that she was totally pooped while they were still in good shape, so she immediately contradicted herself and said, "Never mind I'm just kidding! Let's keep going."

Mimi looked at her concerned, and then she remembered something important, "Hey wait a sec, I just remembered something. There's a cart about

an hour's walk from here and it leads to the end of the tunnel! We can ride it, so it will only take us approximately three hours to get to the end of the tunnel!"

Joy lit up on Izumi face upon hearing the good news. "Well then let's hurry up and get to it cuz I really need to eat!" And with that she sped off ahead

of the other two as if fully energized again. The princess laughed while Auron smirked and hurried after the hyper blonde.

Izumi came to a stop upon seeing a metal cart that was probably big enough to fit ten passengers. Mimi and Auron had caught up to her by now.

"I can't believe I forgot all about this cart. Now I'll have to repeat my time calculations all over again!" the princess complained. Izumi giggled

and said, "don't worry I'll help, cuz I rock in math." The princess's face lit up in relief and thanked Izumi. They all got in the cart, while Auron pushed the

button and they were off. The princess took a small bag out of her pocket, and took three little objects out and gave one to each of them, "These will give

you energy and make you forget you're hunger for now since we don't have any food with us.", she said to Izumi. Izumi looked at the object in her

hand. It looked like a small pill. She threw it into her mouth and chewed it. It tasted really well compared to all the medicine pills she had tried.

After an hour the cart came to a stop, and they all got out. Izumi looked around her and saw another rope ladder leading upward. "So are we going

to go up now or wait till tomorrow like you said before?" she asked.

"Well I think it would save more time if we left now, but it might be safer to leave early tomorrow morning. What do you think Auron?" said the princess.

"I think we should leave now to make better timing. If we wait longer we would be risking more danger in the near future." he replied.

"I guess you're right. Anyways this way we wont have to camp twice in the forest. Are you okay by that Izumi?"

"Yeah, whatever you say. Besides the sooner the better for me."

"Well then after you." said Auron with his arms folded. So Izumi made her way up the ladder as the other two followed. When she got out she was

greeted by the warm sunlight. She took a deep breath and she tasted the sweet air once again. She looked ahead of her and saw a young girl riding a lovely

white horse closely followed by a young boy around the same age also on another beautiful white horse, well at least that's what she thought it was. Izumi

smiled at the sight of them, but then she felt another great pain in her head so she closed her eyes tightly to try to ease the pain. She opened them once

again but the two children were nowhere to be seen. '_They couldn't have got that far in such little time could they_?' Then she realized something.

'_Wait a sec, weren't they the same two I saw when I first got here?_' Her head was still aching when Auron and Mimi finally got out of the tunnel.

She turned around to look at them, but then her eyes opened wide in amazement and she forgot her pain. "Did we just walk out a tree?!" she exclaimed

pointing to the tree behind Mimi. Mimi began to laugh and replied, "Yes and no. It's really just an illusion to hide the path from others. Only the ones

who know about it can enter it, because it feels like a normal tree to those who don't know about it. Clever isn't it?"

"Yes. Very." Izumi replied still not believing she just walked out a tree, "so which way do we go now?"

"Well prince Ryo's castle is that way so follow me", then Auron replied and headed straight ahead of them. The two girls followed. "We have to be more

careful now. We will probably get tomorrow night, right princess?"

"Actually I think we will get there tomorrow like now, because he should be waiting at the end of his tunnel for us, and he has a cart that leads all the way to his castle."

"Good, then let's get a move on." he said and they continued walking.

"Princess…" Izumi started.

"Just call me Mimi."

"Okay then. Mimi how does prince Ryo know that we're coming now?"

"Well remember when my stone glowed yellow by you?"

"Yeah"

"Well all the princes and princess Rika have similar stones but different colored ones according to their kingdoms. Prince Kouji has a black one because

he's the ruler of the black kingdom, and similarly prince Ryo has a blue stone, Prince Yamato has a green one, Princess Rika has a red one, and I have

a yellow one. When one of us finds the chosen one, not only our stones light up, but all the others do as well except they will glow the color of the stone that

is near the chosen one. So to make it clearer to you, when my stone glowed yellow yesterday, so did theirs. So they know that I found you. Keeping up?"

"Yeah I think so. Go on."

"Before the queen found out about the chosen one, but after she took our parents away, we all gathered and decided that when we find the chosen one

we all head to Prince Kouji's castle since it's the closest to the queen's kingdom. But we also agreed that if I or Princess Rika finds you first, then Ryo

and Yamato would have to wait for us to get to them first before heading to Kouji's castle since we live the farthest away. Get it?"

"Yeah, although it's a bit complicated it is a good plan."

* * *

They walked for many hours. Izumi looked at her watch. It was 6:43. She heard her stomach rumble and wished she had eaten her breakfast. And as

if Mimi had heard her thoughts she said, "Hey look. It's a meat apple tree!"

Izumi looked up at the tree and saw big round brown balls. Although she didn't know what a meat apple was she guessed it was food, and jumped up and

down with joy mentally. Mimi climbed up the tree while Auron spread his cloak to catch them. "Hey Izumi can you start a fire." Mimi asked.

"Sure thing." And then she went to gather some sticks and rocks, but then she heard nearby voices. She looked up and saw 10 men wearing black cloaks.

She stood there staring at them absentmindedly letting the wind blow threw her hair. It wasn't until one of them spotted her that she realized that they were

probably from the queen's followers. She was about to run away but the sight of their faces stopped her. Pure fear was written over all their faces as

if they were looking at a ghost. After standing there for a moment they all ran away very quickly. '_What the hell? Why did they look at me like that? _

_Were they even looking at me or something behind me?_' She shuddered at the thought and cautiously turned around. '_Nothing. I'm such a coward!_

_But I'm sure they were looking at me, but then why did they run away?_' Her sequence of thoughts was broken by the sound of Mimi's voice. "I thought

you were making a fire", she said coming up to her, but then she said, "What's wrong with you?"

"I just saw a group of about ten men wearing black cloaks."

"OMG! They must be the queen's followers! Did they see you?!" she exclaimed a bit fearful. Auron came up to them as well.

"They did, I'm sorry. But they ran away." she said staring at the ground guiltily, "They looked scared when they looked at me though but I don't know why."

Auron and the princess exchanged looks and looked very uncomfortable. She assumed it was because they were finally spotted, although she had a

suspicion they were hiding something from her, but she shrugged the thought away.

"They probably went to tell the queen. We should get a move on. Word spreads around pretty fast around here." Auron said.

"But why did they look so scared?" she asked.

"Huh.., well um they're probably afraid that you have great power or something, you know, because of the prophecy of the chosen one having the power

to defeat the queen." Mimi answered her.

"But how did they know I was the chosen one? I mean don't I look like everyone else here?"

"Maybe a little _too_ much like people here", Auron said and began to make a fire. Izumi gave him a questioning look, and was about to ask what he meant, but

Mimi cut in but exclaiming, "Let's forget about our troubles now and eat, I'm starved!" She grabbed a meat apple, stuck a stick threw it, and put it over the fire.

"Grab one and do the same." she told Izumi. She did as she was told, and Auron did the same. After about ten minutes the princess pulled hers back and

took a bite out if it, and then said, "I think they're done now. Eat them." Izumi pulled hers back and looked at it. 'What _is it supposed to be, an apple that_

_tastes like meat or meat that tastes like an apple?_' Auron must have been reading her mind for he said, "It tastes like any kind of meat you want. Try it."

Izumi still hesitated but took a bite anyhow since she was sooo hungry. '_Wow! This is great! I've never tasted anything so good in my life! Well maybe _

_except for the water I drank earlier._'

They ate the meat apples silently and calmly. By the time they had finished, the sun was setting. "I think we should camp around here for today. We'll

wake up early tomorrow and start our way again. But I think we should take turn keeping watch overnight just in case we have uninvited guests over the night." said Auron.

"I agree I'll stay on watch first." said Mimi.

"And I'll go next." Izumi suggested.

"Then I'll be last." said Auron.

The two teenage girls each gathered leaves to make a bed while Auron just leaned against a tree. Then Mimi and Izumi sat by the fire and started a conversation.

"Can you tell me about the princes and Princess Rika?" Izumi asked.

"Well okay, but I haven't seen them all since the princess passed away. You see after the queen took our parents away, we became the ones in charge of our

kingdoms, thus we weren't allowed to leave our lands, and still aren't, unless it's for a very important reason and we have to have the queen's permission.

So you might find them different than what I tell you now." she replied.

"Fine with me, I just want to get an idea about them so I don't find them strange."

"Okay then I think I'll start with Ryo since he's the first you're gonna meet. Well he, like the rest of them and me, is an only child. He was going to turn 12

when I last saw him. He should be 18 by now like me but I'm older. He was known as Mr. Perfect because he was like the best at everything he did. He

lived with only his father because his mother died. Then there's Yamato who is also 18 now and almost 19, and also lived with his father because his mother

also died. He was known the most for his bravery. Then there is Princess Rika. Well she used to be a very kindhearted girl and was always happy, that is

until her father was accused to be a murderer. She was only 7 then. Her father wasn't a very good man; I used to be afraid of going to her place back then.

He looked worse than a murderer, but she seemed to think otherwise. She loved him very much and would yell at us if anyone of us said something bad

about him. But after he was accused for killing the high king and Ryo's and Yamato's mothers, and then disappeared, she changed completely. We never

saw her for a whole year after that, but when we did, she was so coldhearted. We felt we couldn't trust her anymore. We were afraid she had chosen to

follow in her father's footsteps. Some of the rumors even say that she killed the princess. Oh and by the way, her mom died too, a little before the other

queens died because she had a disease."

"What? If she killed the princess why would she be helping you save the digimon and if you didn't trust her then why did you trust that if she found me she wouldn't kill me or not tell you all?"

"Because she hated the queen for what she did to her dad so she would want the chosen one to defeat the queen. Anyway she should be 17 now. And at

last there's Prince Kouji. He was 11 then, a year older than the high princess. His parents are divorced, and there are also rumors that Rika's father had

something to do with their breaking up. He used to prefer to be alone and he liked the silence. But you know how they say opposites attract? Well that's

how it was for him and the high princess. Oh and by the way her name was Mia. She was this very cheerful and happy girl, and the complete opposite of

Kouji, but somehow they became the best of friends, and some people believed that they would get married someday, but they would deny it. They used

to hang out in different parts of the land alone only with the princess's digimon fairymon. But when the princess died he returned back into his lone wolf

self. He should be 17 by now. As for me, well, I'm the only one who still has two happy parents, and Auron as a guide, but now he's yours as well. And

also I haven't changed much from the way I used to be except that I became stronger and learned how to fight. I believe the rest decided to train also in

these years while waiting for you so that we could protect you."

"I feel sorry for you all, even more than I am for myself. I never realized how good I have it."

"Well I told you about everyone and myself, why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"Okay but there's not much to tell. You see when I was ten I got into an accident and got amnesia. My parents restored my memory, and then two years

later they adopted another daughter named Ayame who was four years old. I and she were very close, but a week ago we found out that she had a

deadly disease and she was going to die just before I got here, Memo I mean." Izumi replied.

"I see. Well you don't have such a happy life either. I guess it's like that for everyone. No matter how great our lives might look like, we always have problems." said the princess.

"You're right. But we have to compare our lives to those who have it worse to realize how good we have it."

Mimi sighed then said, "I think you should get some rest now. I'll wake you when it's you're turn."

Izumi yawned and did as she was told. She lay down on her leaf bed and covered herself with her cloak. "Goodnight to you both.", and then she drifted off into another nightmare…

* * *

The journey has begun,

Risking my life for yours,

And saving other lives on the way,

But is it a journey to the future or the past?

…Watching over you…

* * *

**What's up with those guys in the cloaks? And who are those two kids she keeps on seeing? What's going to happen next?**

**Well too bad you're gonna have to wait for next year to find out! lol! Please leave a review!**


	6. attacked

Hey everyone! Thanks all of you for your great reviews, and I would just like to say that I swear I know mimi's hair is brown to SoratoFan,

so I really don't know why you said that, unless you thought I was going to say it was pink. Well anyway thanks to all of you who tired themselves

reviewing this fic, and I hope you can recommend it to others to read too. Also I would like to say that Ryo will show up in this chappie,

and the others will all most definitely will be in the following one, so hold your horses all of you who are waiting for them to step into the picture.

Disclaimer: I swear I don't own digimon, cuz if I did I wouldn't be writing this on fanfiction, it would be on tv!

So on with it already!

Watching Over You

Chapter Six: Attacked

_You may not know,_

_I'm there with you,_

_Protecting you,_

…_Watching over you_

* * *

"Nooo………..! Please…! Help me…….!" Izumi screamed in her sleep. She tossed and turned as sweat made its way down her face.

"Nooo! Please help me K.…ahhhh!" she screamed.

Mimi ran over to her and began to shake her to wake up. "Izumi you have to wake up, come on." Izumi opened her eyes breathing heavily.

Every inch of her body ached, especially her back and stomach. She found herself looking at Mimi, and began to relax.

"It's okay now Izumi, it was only a nightmare." she said soothingly to her.

"Yeah…, thanks for waking me up", Izumi replied with a weak smile. "Is it my turn to watch yet?"

"In about another hour", the princess replied.

"I'll take my turn now because I don't think I want to go back to sleep now."

"Are you sure? You're going to need your rest because we have a lot of walking to do tomorrow."

"I'm sure. Go and get some rest now. You might need it more than me" Izumi said.

"Thanks. Wake Auron up in 4hours and tell him that we need to wake up at six. Goodnight", she said exhaustedly but with a smile on her face.

Then she went over to the patch of leaves she had made into a bed, and went to sleep.

Izumi got up and sat by the fire staring at it thoughtfully. '_Why do I keep getting that nightmare every night? And how come it seems so _

_much worse in this world? Or does it just seem that way? When will all of my questions be answered? Maybe they never will be, and _

_maybe I'll never leave this place_', she shivered slightly and pulled her cloak closer to her slender body. '_Argh, I have got to get my mind _

_away from all these negative thoughts! ... Well I wonder if the princes and Princess Rika will be like Mimi described. I wonder what _

_they all look like'_, at this thought she began to visualize each one of them in many different ways, trying to pass the time.

Izumi looked at her watch. '_One more hour to go_', she thought. She had made up about ten different appearances of all of the princes and

Princess Rika, and even tried to picture princess Mia, but now she was too bored to think of that anymore. She stared deeply into the flames

of the fire in front of her. '_Fire is so weird', she thought, 'It just seems like hot air that gives you light, and it makes you feel warm on_

_the outside. But the funny thing is, if you touch it, it will burn you_.' She laughed at herself out loud but quietly, and thought of how

weird her thoughts can become when she feels lonely. But she stopped suddenly upon hearing a faint laughter. She looked around her but

didn't see anyone nor did she hear the laughter anymore. '_That's it. I'm officially crazy now. I'm sure of that._' But as that thought came to

its end she heard the laughter again yet it sounded a little louder. She stood up and looked around her again. This time she found the source.

About a hundred meters away from her she could see two children chasing after each other in the moonlight. She squinted her eyes to make

them clearer, thus focusing the image of the young girl and boy she had seen earlier, but they were alone this time. '_Who are those two kids?_

_And how could their parents let them out in the middle of the night? Maybe I should go over to them and tell them to go home._'

She began to make her way over to them but she tripped over a root of one of the trees and fell. She sat up and rubbed her knee which had

hit the root when she fell.

"Where were you going?" asked a deep voice.

She looked around to Auron who was leaning against a tree. He still looked like he was sleeping but she knew he was awake. "OMG Auron!

You scared me! I thought I told you not to do that again!" When he didn't answer she sighed and answered his question. "I was just going to

tell those kids to go home and sleep".

"What kids?" he asked her.

"Those two over…" she looked to where the two were playing and saw nothing. '_What? How do they get away so fast?_' She looked back at

Auron who seemed to have his brows raised then said, "Never mind."

He continued to stare at her for a bit longer then said, "is it my turn yet?"

"No, not yet. There's still another half hour."

"Well I'm not going back to sleep now, so you can get some sleep now."

She looked back where the children had been once more, and then shook her head as she saw nothing but the dark forest before her. She stood

up and approached Auron, and then found a spot to sit down. "I have to wait till my shift is over, or else it wouldn't be fair to you and by the way,

Mimi said that we should wake up at six."

Auron remained silent. She looked at him for a second then remembered something. "Can I ask you something?"

He looked at her but she was staring at the fire, so he turned his gaze to the fire also and signaled her to proceed.

"Well you said that you were from earth, right? Well I was wondering how you got here, and why."

He remained silent for a while before he finally answered, "Well like you, I don't know how I got here, I just did. I was much younger than you are

though, eight I think, and as for the reason, well I'm also not sure of that either. But the night I arrived here I remember dreaming about some

kind of fairy digimon who told me that I will return home once I have done something great, but she never mentioned what. And until now, as

you see, I haven't done it."

Izumi turned to look at him. Although he wasn't facing her she could see the pain and sadness in his eyes. '_And I thought I had it hard. At _

_least I know what I'm supposed to do_'. Then an idea came to her, "Maybe that great thing is helping me accomplish my mission", she said

hopefully to him.

She watched as his face seemed to lose most of its hurt expression, but then he said, "Then why would I have been brought here twenty years ago?"

Izumi frowned but then replied, "Maybe so you could get to learn more about the history of this place so that you could be a greater help."

His expression returned to its normal state, and then he said, "Go to sleep now, your shift is over."

She got up and bade him goodnight. She went to her so called bed and covered herself with her cloak and smiled to herself knowing that she had

really helped him in a way. Then she drifted off into sleep yet once again for that night. This time it was more pleasant than the former one.

* * *

"Izumi…, Izumi dear, it's time to wake up for school", a sweet and pleasant voice said to her.

"Just five more minutes' mom…" she replied while turning over.

"But you'll be late dear", repeated the voice.

"Moooooom"

"Haha look at her Auron, she really thinks I'm her mother."

Izumi woke up at the sound of laughter. She opened her eyes and saw Mimi and Auron laughing. "What's so funny?" she asked sleepily.

They exchanged looks and laughed again. Izumi gave them a confused look, but she only got the same result so she just decided to get up.

She used her fingers to brush her hair and tied it into a neat high ponytail. She looked over to Auron and Mimi who were eating meat apples,

so she walked over to them and took one and started to eat it.

"What were you two laughing about just now", she questioned them again.

Mimi giggled a little and replied, "We just felt like it, that's all. There's nothing wrong with starting your day with a laugh is there." And she giggled again.

Izumi gave her a weird look and then continued to eat her breakfast. '_Boy now I know how teachers feel when we hide funny things away_

_from them_'

Once they all had finished eating their breakfast, they started out again on their way to Prince Ryo's tunnel. They walked for about four hours,

and then took a brief break to rest their legs and take another energy pill (like the ones they took in the tunnel before). And then they began

walking again for another three hours until Mimi came to a stop.

"It's somewhere near here, give me a sec to find the right place", Mimi said. She began scanning the place with her eyes until they finally rested on

a small bush a few meters away, and then she began heading towards it. Auron and Izumi followed.

"This is the entry to the tunnel. I don't know if you can see it now, but you'll still be able to go through it now because you know it's here. But

after you go through it you'll be able to see it the next time you want to use it", the princess told Izumi.

She was right. Izumi couldn't see anything but an ordinary bush in front of her. "I'll go first", Mimi said. And with that she stepped carefully into

the bush and began to go downwards.

Izumi stared at her amazedly. She was just sinking into the bush. After what seemed to be a long moment, the young princess finally completely disappeared.

"You're next, but watch your step because there's a ladder you have to climb down", Auron said to her.

She nodded and stepped into the bush hesitantly, feeling weird by her actions and wondering if she would really feel a ladder. She did feel it and made

her way down it, watching her surroundings go from a green forest to a dark cold place.

She reached the bottom of the ladder, and turned around to see two figures. One of them was Mimi while the other she did not recognize. '_He must _

_be Prince Ryo Mimi told me about_', she thought looking at him. The place was dark but there were some lit torches of fire on the walls that

allowed her to make him out. He had brown kind of spiky hair, baby blue eyes, and was about a head taller than Mimi who was about 5.5. He was

wearing a grey sweater with a black wrist guard on his left hand, and black elbow pads and knee pads. He was also wearing black jeans and had a

red bandana tied around his neck.

"Izumi this is Prince Ryo, and Ryo this is Izumi, she's the chosen one", Mimi introduced.

The prince turned his expression to a warm and happy smile as he said, "It's a pleasure to meet you".

Izumi smiled back and replied, "It's nice to meet you too Prince Ryo".

"Just call me Ryo. I don't like formalities", he said.

"Okay then, nice to meet you Ryo."

As she finished saying her sentence Auron emerged down the ladder. "Auron! Long time no see huh?" the prince greeted him.

"Yes it's been awhile. Nice to see you as well", Auron replied, "but there will be plenty of time later to catch up on things. Now we should get a move on".

"Alright. The cart is just around this bend. Follow me", Ryo said while turning and making his way around the corner.

They followed him and got into the cart, and then he pressed a button and they were off.

"So how have you been through these years Auron? Have you come up with any new fighting techniques? If you did can you teach me them? And

what about…" the prince directed questions at Auron.

"Whoah slow down boy, one at a time", Auron said.

Mimi laughed and then whispered to Izumi, "Ryo has always looked up to Auron and wants to be like him."

The prince's questions never seemed to end. One after another he asked Auron who seemed happy that the boy was asking him questions rather than

seeming annoyed as he usually did when he was questioned. They finally came to a stop, and then they all got out of the cart. There was a ladder that

lead up so they began to climb it one by one.

When they finally all got out, Izumi turned to look at the prince to get a better look at him now that they were in the light. He was very handsome and

looked like he was so perfect just like Mimi had said he was, but she noticed that he was also staring at her, but in a different way. In a way she had

witnessed before but couldn't quite place her finger on. She didn't have the time anyways because just then Mimi butted in and said, "Ryo! We're

so hungry! Please let's go eat so we can start out again."

"Huh? Oh right, come on follow me", and then he led the way up a few staircases, and past a few halls. They finally arrived to a large room that had

a large table in the middle with all sorts of kinds of foods covering it. Izumi stood for a while marveling the wonderful food. She couldn't believe it,

it seemed to be too good to be true. Then they all rushed to the table and began to fill their stomachs with more than it could even take. This time

Izumi ate for Ayame, instead of feeling bad and leaving it and she hoped in her heart that Ayame would be able to taste it as she ate it.

* * *

Meanwhile…,

"What kind of nonsense is this you are trying to make me believe?"

"It's the truth your majesty, we saw her with our own eyes."

"That's impossible your majesty. Don't let them make a fool of you; they are just trying to stop you from killing the digimon."

"Enough! You are right Alwine. You should all be ashamed of yourselves, I should punish you, but I won't if you have better news", answered the queen.

"We do your majesty. Princess Mimi has left her kingdom in secret, and we believe she has reached Prince Ryo's kingdom by now. Also Princess

Rika has left her kingdom and so has Prince Yamato. It seems that they are all headed to Prince Kouji's castle. That is all, but your majesty I assure

you that we have seen her, all ten of us, in the forest".

"That's all I want to hear. I will spare you this time but never try to trick me again or it will mean your lives", answered the queen, "Now go and get

the chosen one, but don't you hurt her. I would like to do it personally".

"Yes your highness", said one of the ten men, and then they all left the room.

"They found the chosen one, you must be sure you are prepared my queen. You don't want your plans to go the other way around", said Alwine.

"That's enough Alwine, please leave, I would like to have some time alone now", said the queen.

"Of course your highness", he said and left the room. '_You better not fail your plans or else my master will have my head_'.

* * *

"I'm stuffed", Izumi said.

"Yeah, me too", said Mimi.

"Same here", said Ryo.

"We mustn't waste time, get up everyone, we have to leave now", said Auron.

Izumi and Mimi groaned, while Ryo jumped up and said, "Whatever you say Auron. Come on girls, get up".

After fifteen minutes they were all back down in the tunnel again. This time they took another path, and rode down it in the cart. The ride took about

an hour, and then they all went up another ladder, only this time they walked out of a boulder.

Izumi looked at her surroundings. Again she was in a forest just as beautiful as the other. "So which way to?" she asked.

"We will go north first for about five hours, and then we will reach a train station that is Prince Kouji's private one, which will be another hour ride that

will take us to the interior of his kingdom, and then we walk another half hour to get to his castle", the prince answered her.

'Okay, well I guess you wont have to do anymore calculations Mimi, Ryo here seems to have it all covered for you", Izumi said with a smile.

"Very funny Izumi. Well I guess you still are Mr. Perfect Ryo", Mimi said.

"Hey I'm not the perfect one, it's Auron. After all, I learned it all from him", Ryo replied.

"Enough talking, let's get a move on", Auron ordered and began to walk ahead of them all.

After about three hours the sun began to set, and the forest began to become darker and darker. They continued walking for another hour, while the

forest had become semi-dark. But all of a sudden both Auron and Ryo stopped. The two teenage girls also stopped behind them.

"What is it Auron?" the princess asked.

"Someone is following us", Ryo answered looking around himself suspiciously.

"Be on guard everyone, for we could be attacked any moment now", said Auron and then he began to walk carefully again, and the others followed suit.

Izumi snuck her hand into her pocket and slowly took out the small metal bar that Mimi had given her earlier. She felt a bit nervous not knowing exactly

what to expect. She looked at Mimi who looked about as nervous as she felt, and then at Ryo who looked completely confident and fearless, and

finally at Auron who looked no different than a few minutes before.

There was a rustle in the leaves to their right. Izumi shot around, but it was only the wind. They continued walking for another five minutes when the sound

of snickering could be heard. They all stopped and looked around. Dark figures began to come into sight all around them, and they began to get closer

and closer, till ten clear figures of men could be seen.

They all just stood there in silence for a while, letting the wind ripple their cloaks. Izumi stood in her spot looking at each man one by one, but no one

returned her glance. They were all focused on the other three.

The silence came to an end when one of the cloaked men finally spoke in a harsh tone, "Hand over the chosen one and we assure you that the queen

will not punish you. But on the other hand, if you do not cooperate, we will take your lives away now. So you see it would be wiser to give us the chosen one."

Izumi shivered slightly, but not from the cold, from the feeling that arouse in her. It was now that she truly felt the dangers and risks of her task, and

realized all the difficulties she would have to face. '_What if we lose now, what will happen to me then? Or worse, what will happen to them? _

_And then I won't be able to see Ayame again_.'

"Yes you're right, we should give her to you, but I don't feel like it today." said Auron and then he charged at them. The fight began.

Ryo was facing three of them with his double-edged sword, and was doing pretty good. Mimi was doing pretty well herself, only she was only facing two.

While Auron was facing four of them. He was amazingly strong, and by the way he fought, Izumi understood why Ryo thought so high of him.

Izumi just stood there watching them all fight. She felt like she wasn't even there. But then something occurred to her, '_Wait a sec, weren't there ten _

_guys? I only see nine of them_.' She looked around but didn't see anyone. '_Maybe I just miscounted them_', she thought, but when she heard a

twig crumple behind her she quickly squeezed the metal bar in her hand twice and it expanded to the long bar it had turned into the first time she

did this. Then the tenth man charged at her with his sword as she used the bar to block his attack. He pressed the bar closer to her but she retaliated

and made him step back. In this time she used her bar to hit him hard in the stomach and knock him out. She breathed heavily, and looked around

to the others. They had all beaten their opponents and there was only one man left who was begging on his knees for mercy.

"Please, have mercy! I swear I wont try to harm you again! I was on your side the whole time, they made me do it, I didn't want to, please!" he pleaded.

"Save all your cries for the queen to hear. I will spare you this time, but if I ever fight you again, I swear I'll kill you." said Auron.

"Oh thank you!" the man cried, and then he fled off into the dark forest.

"Now that's over let's continue our way before it gets too dark." said Mimi, and then they all continued their way towards the train.

After about half an hour, they reached a train station. The princess and prince had a short speech with the conductor, and then they were off. The

speed was a lot faster than Izumi had expected, for after about forty-five minutes it came to a stop and they were on foot again.

They walked through the deserted streets of the black kingdom. Everything was so quiet at the time because it was night. After about half an hour

they came upon a large palace. They walked up to the great doors and addressed themselves to the guards. Then they followed a guard for

what seemed like forever to Izumi because she was so tired. Finally they stopped when they reached a long corridor that split to many rooms.

"Each of you can select a bedroom to spend the night in, and in the morning you will part once again, since princess Rika still hasn't arrived. Those are

Prince Kouji's commands." the guard said.

"What about Prince Yamato, is he not here as well?" Mimi asked.

"He is here. He arrived yesterday." the guard stated.

"I thought you told me that he was supposed to wait for Princess Rika, and they were supposed to get here together. Izumi said to the princess.

"That's what I thought too", said Mimi frowning, "Where is he?"

"He is resting now your highness, and so is Prince Kouji. I advise you to go rest now as well, and ask your questions tomorrow morning during

breakfast", the guard replied.

"But…" Mimi protested.

"Go to sleep now Mimi, you'll ask tomorrow." said Ryo.

"Yes. There is no point in wasting your energy when you barely have any." said Auron.

"Oh fine, goodnight everyone." she said and then walked into a room to the right and closed the door behind her.

The rest followed suit, and then the guard left towards Prince Kouji's room.

Izumi was so tired she just collapsed on the bed without giving any notice to the beautiful room she was in, and fell asleep with no further thoughts about anything.

* * *

The guard knocked on the door, and entered once he heard the young prince's voice say, "Come in."

"Did they all get here yet?" the prince asked coldly.

"Prince Ryo and Princess Mimi just arrived with the chosen one and Auron, and the chosen one is a girl. Princess Rika on the other hand still hasn't arrived,

but we've heard that she got to the kingdom, she should be here soon."

The prince was silent for a few seconds, and then he said, "Describe the chosen one to me."

"I think I'll let you see her for yourself in the morning, I'm sure you'll be surprised", the guard replied and then he left the room thinking, '_Will you _

_most certainly be surprised if you've stored your memories_.'

* * *

The questions remain unanswered,

And the mysteries and secrets still bound us,

Facing all the dangers that wait,

Still lacking the truth of it all,

…Watching Over You…

* * *

**So how'd you all like it so far? I hope you liked it. Here are some questions to give it some more suspense:**

**How come Yamato never waited for Rika? And what's up with the Qeen and that Alwine guy? And what did Kouji's guard mean at the end? Find out soon in the chapters to come in 'Watching Over You' by yours truly.**

**P.S: please review! The more reviews I get the faster I'll update!**


	7. the truth about the red king

Okay, first I would like to thank all of you reviewers for your reviews, cuz they really do inspire me.

I would like to dedicate this chapter to everyone who reviews so far and was patient waiting for all the main characters to appear. So here you have it! Everyone I promised would be in this chapter is here, finally! Yeah!

Disclaimer: Even though it's obvious I will have to tell you anyway: I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON OR THE CHARACTERS!

Lights, cameras, Action!

Watching Over You

Chapter Seven: The Truth about the Red King

You may not know,

I'm there with you,

Protecting you,

…Watching over you…

* * *

Kouji laid back on his bed and stared at the ceiling of his bedroom. '_So it's really happening now._

_The chosen one is here and soon we'll be leading a war off against the queen, and it's all my fault._'

He turned to his side and sighed. '_None of this would be happening if I'd never let Mia die._'

Although everyone thought that the prince had thrown the memory of the princess away, the truth was

otherwise. He was able to hide it all during the day along with all the rest of his feelings to the degree that

many thought that he didn't even own a heart at all, but during the night he was never able to get rid of

the sound of her screaming. On and on he would here her voice repeating the same helpless and terrified cries for help.

"Help…". The screaming began again. "Arghh, I've got to get this out of my head!", he shouted at himself

furiously, and then got up and headed to the door to get something to drink. He opened the door but as he

did, he heard another scream, but this time a bit louder. He shook his head angrily and made his way down

the hall. But with each step he took the screaming just got louder and louder. He stopped abrupt with realization

that someone was really screaming now, not his imagination. He began to walk faster now to find the owner

of the screaming. He finally got to the end of the corridor where the voice was the loudest. He looked at one

of the doors read 'Prince Ryo' at the top of it. The sound wasn't coming from there, for it was a girl's

voice screaming. He turned to the other direction. There were three doors with readings above them, one

'Princess Mimi', the second 'Chosen One' and the third 'Princess Rika'. The screaming by no doubt was coming

from the chosen one's room. 'Why would she be screaming now', the prince wondered annoyed. But then a

sick thought came to him. _'Damn! What if the queen sent some of her guards to kidnap her! Could they _

_really have gotten past all my guards without me even noticing it?!_'

He didn't have any weapon with him at the moment, but he knew he would probably be too late if he went

to get one …again. He threw away his thoughts in disgust, and then opened the door and quickly positioned

himself to fight. He looked around the room and saw no one in the moonlight.

His heart sunk. He was too late. '_No, I can't believe this! Why does life like torturing me?_'. Although he didn't

even know the girl he felt that he had betrayed her, just like he betrayed the one whom he cared for the most.

He clutched his fists painfully as his most horrible memory made its way into his mind.

(Flash Back)

"Wait here Mia, I have a surprise for you", an eleven year old image of Kouji said.

"A surprise, for me? What is it?" the young princess Mia asked curiously but cheerfully while letting the

wind play through her lovely long hair.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise now would it. So stay here while I go get It.", Kouji replied happily

as he began to make his way.

"Okay then, but hurry back. I don't want to stay alone for too long.", she called after him.

He made his way to a tree that had a hole in it and took out a small bag. He looked at the bag smiling momentarily.

'_This is just perfect. Now I'll be able to show her how much I like her_'. His thoughts didn't last long, for he

then heard a distant screaming. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Kouji! Help!"

"Mia!" He began running back towards where he had left her. '_What made her scream like that_?' he wondered

as he ran. As he reached the place he had left her at, he looked around and saw something just leave his vision.

He continued to run in that direction until he could make out an outline of a large person or creature dressed

in black running after the young princess who wasn't much farther away into the forest.

"Please help! Anyone! Please Kouji!" she was crying out as she ran. She kept on turning back to look upon

her pursuer, developing an even more terrified look each time, either because of her pursuer's looks or because

he was getting closer.

Kouji ran faster and faster more determined to save her with each step. He could see the horrified look

on her face each time she turned, and it pained him to see her like that, for she was always so cheerful and happy.

But then as she turned around once more she gave a cry even more frightful than any other. The young prince

looked at the figure in front of him and then knew what caused her fear to increase. The shining of a long

sword blade gleamed as it was touched by the few sunrays that shone between the trees. He felt sick as he ran

and his heart was racing. '_Was whoever or whatever it was going to, to kill her, with that sword?_' The idea

never quite occurred to him, but what else had he expected.

Her screaming continued as the sound of water was heard. Kouji kept running after them, watching as the figure

got closer and closer, and also as the sound of water got louder and louder. "Stay away from her or else you

will pay for it!", he shouted at the monstrous figure, but it never turned to face him, as if it didn't even r

ealize that he was following.

"Please help! Kou………….aaahhhhhh!" the young princess's voice trailed off. Her image disappeared, and

then her pursuer changed direction and also disappeared. "Mia!" Kouji called, and continued running until her

reached a cliff. He stopped in shock. There was a waterfall that led a very long way down and completed the

flow of a river, and that had big sharp rocks at the bottom. He looked down painfully only to see his dear

friend, for the very last time ever, splash in the waters and disappear … forever…

He sank to his knees, and did something that he had never done in his life before…; he cried.

(End Flash Back)

He squeezed his eyes tightly fighting away the anguish. Just then he heard another cry as a figure sprung

awake in bed. He turned to see the image of a young girl with long hair sitting up in bed panting rapidly, and

moonlight sparkling in her eyes revealing tears running down her cheeks. The moonlight was bright enough to

only make out her outline, and that was enough for him to know that she was alright and was just having somenightmare.

'I am so pathetic and weak. How can I let my emotions take over me… all they do is bring more pain and

sorrow.' He glanced at the girl one more time and then just left the room quietly in hope of not being noticed.

Once he was in the corridor again, he took a deep breath and then headed back to his room forgetting about

his earlier crave for water, and made a very important decision on his way. 'From this second on I shall lock

my past away along with all my emotions and put up a barrier. I will not be weak again nor pathetic. I will

be ice!' He made a turn into his room and finally got the rest he never had in years.

Izumi woke up the next morning feeling like she had just been sleeping on a pile of logs. "Damn that stupid

dream! When will I stop having it?!" she said grumpily to herself. She rubbed her eyes and got out of bed. She

looked around the room and realized how totally big it was and how beautiful it was. It was mostly a light lavender

color, with some light pink furniture here and there. It also had its own bathroom. '_Too bad I didn't have _

_any fresh clothes with me, I could really use a shower now_', she thought to herself. Then she looked at her

watch and realized that the others might all be awake and waiting for her. She quickly made her way to a mirror

where she found a brush and she brushed her hair into a neat ponytail, and then she made her way to the door.

When she opened the door, she noticed a man standing there. "So you've finally awaken, I shall lead you

to the breakfast room." He said and began to make his way down the corridor. His words had been so sudden

that it took a few seconds for his words to sink into her head. When they did she quickly made her way after

him. "So did you have a good night sleep?" he asked as they walked through the huge castle. She sighed before

lying, "Yes I did. It was a very comfortable night." He remained silent for the rest of the way and so did she.

She kind of felt guilty for lying to the old guy, but what was she supposed to do? If she had told him that she

didn't he might've taken it as an insult or he might've felt offended or something. Besides, she wasn't

just about to tell a complete stranger about her problems when she couldn't even tell her own family. Finally they reached their destination.

Izumi looked into the room, which was very big, and saw six people seated at a very long table, that was covered

with many different kinds of foods, two girls on one side and four boys on the opposite side. Mimi was seated

on the right side of the table and a few seats away from her was another young beautiful teenaged girl with

ice violet eyes, red fiery hair with some blond highlights that was tied up into a spiked ponytail, and pale skin.

She was wearing a knee-long black leather jacket over a blood red shirt that read the words '**Don't mess**

**with me**', and black pants with leather boots on. She had a very cold gaze. Izumi guessed she was Princess

Rika. On the other side of the table, Auron and Ryo were seated next to two other guys. One of them had

cool chin-length blond hair with sky blue eyes. He was wearing a blue jean jacket over a sleeveless green

shirt and green camouflage pants. He had a straight face. The second guy beside him had long black hair

tied into a pony tail with deep blue eyes. He was wearing a black hooded sweater with a picture of a red

dragon on the front that was wrapped around an iceberg, and black cargo pants in addition to a navy bandana

on his head. He had the same cold gaze princess Rika had and maybe even colder. She guessed that he

was Prince Kouji from what Mimi had told her about him, while the other was Prince Yamato.

"Ahem", the guard said, "The chosen one has awoken." As he finished his sentence they all looked up from

their breakfast to look upon her. She received warm smiles from Mimi and Ryo and an acknowledgment

from Auron. She smiled back at them appreciatively, but she then frowned. The blonde was staring at her

rather strangely, and she also caught both the looks of surprise and shock from the redhead and bandana

boy even though they were brief and turned almost immediately to their previous cold stares. '_What is _

_their problem?! Why does everyone keep looking at me like that? If this is some joke of Mimi's I swear _

_I will pay her back'_, she thought almost angrily. Just then Mimi said merrily, "Good morning Izumi. Come

grab a seat and have a bite to eat." Izumi shook her thoughts away and took a seat next to Mimi. "Izumi this

is Princess Rika," she said pointing to the redhead. Izumi smiled at her and she was a bit surprised that

the princess actually returned her it even though it was a small one. "And this is Prince Yamato," she continued

as she pointed to the prince with blond hair. He was still looking at her in a rather suspicious way but when

she smiled at him he shook it off and replaced it with a warm smile. "And last but not least, this is prince Kouji.

" She said finally pointing to the remaining boy with the long black hair. He only looked at her only briefly in

acknowledgement when she turned to smile at him and then turned his attention back to his meal. She

continued to look at him for a bit longer, and then thought,_ 'He reminds me of someone although I can't _

_quite remember who._' He raised his head and looked at her again and then she quickly turned her attention to

her food for she didn't want to be caught staring.

"So how long have you been waiting for me?" she asked Mimi. "Oh not for long. I just woke up myself about

ten minutes ago." Izumi continued to eat her meal and then Mimi spoke up again, but this time her words

weren't directed to Izumi but to Prince Yamato. "So I heard that you came here without waiting for Rika."

she said to him.

"Yeah, I did." he said coolly avoiding her eyes.

"That wasn't what we planned!" she said slightly irritated by his tone.

"Well what if I forgot what we planned!" he said to her equally.

"And I bet that you never forgot for even one second what we planned!" she raised her voice angrily at him.

"So! Even if I didn't forget, I can choose for myself if I want to wait for a murderer's daughter or not!" he said with an even higher raise of voice.

"Hey, don't say that!" she said standing up angrily, "You can't prove that he killed anyone!"

"You Wanna bet?", he said also standing up. Then he took a quick glance at Rika who was just sitting calmly

eating her breakfast as if their fight had nothing to do with her, and then back at Mimi and said, "Don't cover up

for her. She isn't even trying to stand up for herself!"

They both stood there facing each other with evil glares, until Auron finally said, "That's enough both of you.

Sit down and eat up so we can get moving."

They both sat down stubbornly, their eyes never even blinking, and then as if by magic they both dropped their

eyes to their food at the same time. Everyone remained silent. Izumi looked at everyone, and she could almost

feel the tension in the room. Mimi and Yamato kept on looking at each other in disgust, Ryo kept on looking

up at Mimi, Yamato, and Rika with a mixture of sadness, pain, and sorrow on his face, while Rika, Kouji,

and Auron all remained calm and seemed unconcerned about what just happened.

The silence was suddenly broken by the abrupt sound of Mimi's chair pulling back, and then Mimi's voice

saying darkly, "I didn't realize how time can easily change a person's soul into a real jerk." Her words

playing menacingly in the atmosphere of the room, as she turned out of the room. Yamato grunted, clearly

getting the message that her words had been directed to him, and then he too got up and left. Ryo sighed and

also stood up, but before he left he said, "Don't let Yamato's words get to you; he's just had it a little hard.

" Izumi looked up, but he was already leaving the room. '_Was he talking to me or to Rika?_' she wondered.

"Idiot." She heard a soft female voice say. She turned and saw Princess Rika getting up and leaving the room

with a look of annoyance on her face. '_That was funny. So who was talking to whom now? Was Ryo talking_

_to her? But then why would she have said that he was an idiot? Or was she talking about Yamato? Man _

_these people are starting to confuse me!_' She looked around at the remaining two who were still seated at the

table. They were both silent and eating as if nothing had happened. Izumi got up and left the room, and headed

back to her room.

She had surprisingly remembered the way to her room so it didn't take her long to get there. When she

had reached the corridor that separated into the bedrooms, she could here a faint voice crying. She stood

before each room silently to see which room the crying was coming from before she located it. It was

coming from Mimi's room. She put her hand on the doorknob gently, and then slowly opened the door.

The crying grew a bit louder now that the door was opened. She saw Mimi sitting on her bed crying into her pillow.

"Can I come in?" she asked quietly.

Mimi looked up at her. Her eyes were a bit red from crying, and there were a few tears in them and some on

her cheeks that she quickly brushed away, and then she forced a smile on her face.

"Sure.", she said softly.

Izumi made her way over to Mimi's bed and sat down beside her.

"Are you okay?" she asked sympathetically.

"I'm fine." she answered starring at the floor.

They both went silent not knowing what to say. Izumi could tell that she was upset from the fight she had just

had with Yamato, but she wanted a way to make Mimi feel better. Then she got an idea. She began to sniff

herself to draw Mimi's attention. Mimi looked at her questioningly.

"Man I could use a shower now. I totally reek!" she said laughingly.

Mimi stared at her for a bit longer before they both burst out laughing.

Mimi was the first to stop, and then she said, "Why don't you go take a shower then?"

Izumi stopped laughing as well and then replied, "I can't. I have no fresh clothes to wear!"

Mimi laughed once again. "You really aren't from this world, are you?", and not waiting for an answer she

stood up and gestured for Izumi to follow.

Mimi led them into Izumi's room, and into the bathroom. She made her way to a closet and took out a glass

box, and then set it on a small table in the corner, and opened it.

"Put your clothes in here before you shower. In about ten minutes your clothes will return become like

new again, and even more fresh than they were."

Izumi examined the box carefully. It looked like an ordinary glass box to her but hey, nothing was as it seemed in this world.

"Don't take too long though. We have to leave in about another hour." Mimi said and then she left the room.

'_Well I guess I'll have to trust her on this one…FINALLY! I get to be clean again!_' She quickly began to u

ndress and threw her clothing into the glass box and shut it. She turned the water on and waited for a moment

for it to get hot. She stepped into the shower feeling the hot water on her body. She found some shampoo

so she began to scrub her hair. As she did so her head began to ache. She ignored it and just assumed that

she was scrubbing too hard, but as she turned around to let the water run on her back, her head began to hurt

even more and the hot water suddenly felt like ice as it hit her back while everywhere else it seemed hot.

A short scream escaped her lips as she moved away from the water. Pain shot through her whole back and slowly

made its way to her belly. She knelt down and grasped herself tightly trying to ease the pain.

After five minutes, but what seemed like forever to Izumi the pain stopped. She stood up cautiously afraid

that it would start hurting again, and then carefully rinsed the shampoo out of her long blond hair. She grabbed

two towels, and wrapped one around herself and one over her hair, and then she stepped out of the shower.

She decided to relax a bit on her bed before getting herself dressed. She lay on her bed for a few minutes until

she began to hear noises from the corridor and decided that she should get dressed. She made her way back

over to the glass box and opened it. A lovely smell spread over the room and her clothes really did look as

good as new. She quickly dressed herself and then head over to the mirror and combed her hair. She decided to

leave it down so it could dry, and then she left the room. There was no one in the corridor, so she decided to

walk back down to where she had breakfast to see if they were there. But just as she was about to go she heard

a door open. She turned to see Princess Rika leaving her room. The princess spotted Izumi and then walked

over to her with a small smile on.

"Were you all waiting for me?"

she asked in a cold yet somehow friendly voice.

"I'm not sure, I was just on my way down to the breakfast room to see if they were there.", Izumi replied.

The princess walked past Izumi and turned the corner. '_Well I guess she's not as cold as Mimi told me, but she should have at least waited for me now, I mean, it wouldn't kill her or me if we walked down together, would it?_', Izumi thought. And just as she had finished that thought, and as if Rika was psychic which she most highly doubted, Princess Rika's voice sounded, "Aren't you coming?"

Izumi quickly snapped out of her thoughts and made her way after Rika who had been standing on the other side of the wall waiting for her. Together they made their way down to the breakfast room where, as Izumi had predicted, everyone was waiting.

"Took you long enough." Yamato sneered directing his statement at Rika more than Izumi, which earned him a glare from all three of the girls but he didn't really seem to care.

"Alright then, we should start going now that we're all here.", said Auron, "We'll have to go out from the back doors, and we since this kingdom never built any tunnels we will have to move through the forest and then climb the big hills where we will camp. Once we get there we'll decided which route to take."

And so they all followed him as he led them out of the castle and into the forest. Izumi noticed now that they were all carrying weapons. Yamato had two daggers and a long sword, Rika had a couple of daggers and a bow and arrow, and Kouji had a reversed edge sword. They were all also wearing different kinds of armor.

They walked for many hours through the forest. Izumi began to feel hungry and tired, but as she looked at the rest she noticed that they looked fine, so she remained silent. They walked a bit longer and then Izumi heard her stomach grumble. She looked to see if anyone had noticed. Auron, Mimi, Ryo and Yamato were walking a bit ahead of her, so she assumed they hadn't heard, while Rika and Kouji were walking along side of her, Kouji the closest to her. Kouji was close enough to hear so she prayed he hadn't. Five minutes later Kouji walked further ahead up to Auron and whispered something to him. Izumi watched him carefully hoping he wasn't telling him what she thought he was telling him. She was hungry but still she didn't want to feel embarrassed. But Auron kept on going on and Kouji slowly returned by her side. She guessed he had told Auron something else, since they never stopped.

Auron finally stopped ten minutes later under meat apple trees.

"We will take a break now to eat," he ordered, "Mimi and Yamato; you come with me to get the meat apples. Rika and Ryo, you go get some sticks to put them on. Izumi and Kouji, you two get a fire started. Oh and Izumi, this time actually start the fire."

Everyone reluctantly obeyed his orders. Izumi felt her face grow a little red from his last statement. Everyone left the small clearing they were in to do what they were told, leaving Izumi and Kouji to light a fire.

"You don't know how to light a fire?" Kouji's voice said icily. She was a bit surprised to hear him actually talk after his long silence, but felt a bit mad at his question.

"Of course I know how to light a fire! Why would you say that?" she said madly.

He remained silent for a bit, and then as if out of nowhere he asked, "Then what happened?", his voice still dry and his face still blank.

She looked up at him confusedly, "What do you mean, 'what happened'?"

He put a couple of leaves together with some sticks and grabbed two rocks and began to hit them together. "Auron said that you never lighted the fire last time. Why not?" he said with his eyes on the rocks.

"Oh, that…,", she sighed looking at the rocks, "I just saw a group of men staring at me as if I were some kind of monster, that's all." She watched as the fire lit up and then added, "But I don't know why."

Kouji sat back and so did she. And then after a few seconds Kouji looked up at her and said, "It's only normal that you don't know why if you're not from here as Mimi told me."

She was about to ask him what he meant, but then Ryo and Rika appeared and sat down by the fire with them. Rika looked like she was really pissed off because of something while Ryo had a straight face on. They all sat in silence until Mimi and Yamato's voices came into the hearing. As they came into eyesight Izumi could hear what they were saying.

"I swear it was him!" came Yamato's voice.

"You can't prove it", came Mimi's.

Izumi sighed. '_Looks like their fighting about the same thing again_.' They finally reached the others and sat down followed by Auron.

"Ryo and I were there! We both witnessed it! Didn't we Ryo?" he said looking towards Ryo at his last sentence.

"Don't bring me into this man.", Ryo said rather warningly to him.

"Just answer my question, the truth can't hurt you!" Yamato retorted.

"Yeah, we did." he muttered before glancing at Rika to see if she would kill him for saying that or not, but she remained silent and calm.

Mimi handed a meat apple to everyone before saying, "And how did you witness it, if I may ask."

"Remember when we all were at Rika's castle for her birthday party? Well when we were all playing hide and seek, Ryo and I hid in the cupboard, and then both our moms walked in and sat down at the table. After a little while **_he _**walked in and gave them each a drink. And then as soon as they left the room he smiled and laughed evilly and said, 'I hope you enjoy this party, cuz it will be the last you will attend'. Then after five days, both our mothers died. Is that enough proof for you, or do I have to go and dig up my mom's grave and cut her open to show you that she died form poison?"

Mimi looked at him for a long time as if trying to see if he was telling the truth from his eyes. He stared back with a persuasive look on. Izumi looked back and forth between the two, feeling like she was watching some kind of staring contest. Finally Mimi dropped her eyes in defeat and then said, "Well, that still doesn't give you the right to call her a murderer too."

Yamato grunted, "You're just too stubborn to admit I'm right."

Rika pulled her apple back, stood up and walked away. Izumi stared after her, as did Ryo, concernedly while the two continued arguing, and Auron and Kouji minded their own business. She stood up and followed after the princess, and left her meat apple by the fire.

She found Rika sitting on a rock clutching her fists. She cautiously got closer to her and then said softly, "Never mind what they say. It was probably a coincidence that the two queens died on the same day, and maybe that wasn't your dad they heard saying those…", but she was cut off by the princess's angry voice.

"Stop it! It was him! I was there too!"

Izumi took a step back surprised by her sudden outbreak. The princess saw this and quickly turned away. They remained silent for a bit before Rika finally said, "He wasn't always like that you know, a murderer I mean"

Izumi walked up to her and sat beside her and signaled her to continue.

"He was so kind and so gentle that he wouldn't even hurt a fly. But then my mother got a terrible disease and so did the high king, which had no cure. But then the queen ordered all the doctors to find a cure. Days went by, and the doctors told us that they only have a short time to live, and then finally one of the doctors made a potion that was guaranteed to cure them but it was only enough for one person. The doctor said that it would take him another month to prepare another one but that would have been too late. The queen was going to give it to the king but my father said it wasn't fair, so then it was decided that no one would take it. And then from then on people said it was my father's fault the king died. And then as time went by, I could feel the hate grow in my father. He thought the people's accusations weren't fair, and that no one cared that my mother died. He decided to kill the other queens since no seemed to give a care that his queen was dead and also to give the people a real reason to call him a murderer."

Rika took a sigh in as if relieved that she had finally told that to someone. Izumi felt very sad for the princess, and was about to say something but Rika had more to say.

"Then on my birthday, he invited all the royal families over. All of them came except for the yellow kingdoms because Mimi was sick I think. Anyway, we decided to play hide and seek, and when it was my turn to seek, I went into the kitchen. I saw my father pour a few drops of something into the two cups, but I just thought they were for flavor. After a while I came into the dining room where my father was leaving from, and I heard him say what Yamato said just now. It was then that I suspected that he had poisoned the drinks, and after five days I was sure of it. Can you believe it? He did that terrible thing on my birthday! And guess what else? When the queen sent guards after him he told me to never let anything or anyone take my happiness away, and that he'd be back some day"

She paused shortly and laughed half-heartedly. "That bastard! He took away my happiness! He was my happiness! He left me there in the darkness of his reputation, and said that he would be back. As if that was supposed to make me happy! I hate him! And I never want to see his face again!"

Izumi watched as a tear trickled down her face. She set a hand on her shoulder and calmly said, "I know you don't mean that… it will all turn out right in the end. You'll see."

Rika smiled slightly at her, and then they switched back into silence once more. Then suddenly Izumi stood up hastily and screeched, "Oh no! My meat apple! It probably burnt! And I'm soo hungry!"

She quickly ran back towards the others. Rika looked back at her with a small smile, and thought, '_She is quite the same, and just as funny_'.

Izumi got back and looked at the others. They were all getting ready to leave. She searched around for her meat apple but couldn't find it anywhere.

"Looking for this?" an icy voice asked.

Izumi looked to see Kouji holding out her meat apple. "Yes! Thank you sooo much." And she quickly took it from him.

"For a girl who was dying of hunger, I never thought you would walk away and leave it behind." he said in a cold yet mocking tone.

Izumi felt blood rushing to her face, and she looked away embarrassed, "you heard that?"

He smirked and walked up to the others. Rika finally came back and then Auron ordered them to walk on. They walked for a long time.

Just as the sun was setting, Auron stopped, and then a sound of evil snickering was heard. "Make a circle everyone", Auron ordered so they all formed a circle with their backs facing the center.

"Well, well…, what have we here… heheh…" a man's voice croaked.

Halfway through I have come,

Fighting battles one by one,

Learning more of what is already known,

Nearing the truth with every step,

…Watching Over You…

**So how was it? … it doesn't really matter anyway cuz I wont be finishing this anymore.sniff I have too much homework and no time to work on this…….Not! No way I would abandon my own story! I would have to be crazy! :P**

**Suspense Questions:**

**Will Izumi ever stop getting that nightmare? And can Kouji really forget Mia? And what did they all come up against in the end of this chap? Find out in the next chapter. Please R&R. **


	8. my immortal

I always take long o post a new chapter don't I? Well sorry, but a lot has come up lately and there is no time for anything. And to top everything off, my teacher wants me to enter a book report contest, and a best story contest, and they are both for the whole country! I would have said no, but it's not easy to say no to my teacher believe me. Thank you all for ur great reviews and im sorry but I cant answer any of ur questions cuz I don't want to spoil it. But if you really want to know, just email me and I might give you answers.

Anyway, this chapter has a song by Evanescence, which I don't own.

I wont keep u waiting so go ahead and read.

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon or the song I used.

Chapter Eight: My Immortal

You may not know,

I'm there with you,

Protecting you,

…Watching over you…

* * *

From last chapter:

Just as the sun was setting, Auron stopped, and then a sound of evil snickering was heard. "Make a circle everyone", Auron ordered so they all formed a circle with their backs facing the center.

"Well, well…, what have we here… heheh…" a man's voice croaked.

* * *

Thirty men appeared from the darkness of the woods, and quickly formed a circle around them. One of them stepped forward into a ray of light, revealing that he was the one they had forgiven in the forest on the way to Kouji's castle.

"You shouldn't have let me go, Auron. Now you **_will _**surrender the chosen one to us." he sneered.

"Hey! The _chosen one _**has** a name you know, and it's Izumi!", Izumi replied to him feeling really pissed off that this guy could just say that so simply after they had spared his life.

If she had wanted at least some attention in the last battle, she sure regretted wishing for it. There was an eerie silence as all eyes had finally fallen upon her. Some had a kind of surprised and wondering look in them that slowly turned back into the wicked look they had on before, while others merely stared. After what seemed like hours to Izumi, the silence as suddenly broken by the same croaked voice that had spoken to Auron.

"Oh, Izumi is it? I was so thinking something else. So tell me… Izumi, how long have you been here in Memo?" he said in a kind of taunting way.

Izumi opened her mouth to reply, but Auron pushed her back into the middle of the circle.

"Your business is not with the girl. Draw your sword and fight like a man!" Auron said.

"In a hurry to die Auron?" he replied, as he drew his sword.

"No my dear friend, I'm in a hurry to kill.", and with that Auron charged forwards and the fight began.

Izumi stood in the middle of the wide circle they had formed watching them all fight, and feeling pretty left out and useless.

There were five men challenging each of them. Auron didn't seem to be having any trouble at all like last time, Ryo, Yamato and

Kouji weren't doing so bad themselves, and Mimi and Rika were doing okay but with a little more trouble than the others. Izumi

watched each one just in case they needed any help. And as her eyes lay on Rika, she noticed that one of them had slashed her arm, and

was about to give his final blow. Izumi panicked at first, and then quickly pulled the bar from her pocket and expanded it, and quickly

ran towards Rika and was about to hit the man but it was all happening too fast for her. She could never have gotten there in

time since the guy had already started at her.

Rika clutched her arm as blood trickled down it. She looked to see that the man was preparing for the hit of her fate. '_I can't believe _

_this has all come to this. The queen is actually going as far to killing royalty just to get rid of the digimon? Now I'm going to _

_die before I can tell that bastard how much I hate him!_' She closed her eyes tightly and turned her head waiting for the pain to

hit her, '_Oh please make it fast so there's no torture_'. She stayed there for a quarter of a minute, but it never came. She looked up to

see what happened.

Izumi watched in dread as the man used all his strength lowering the sword on Rika. She couldn't do anything. Time wasn't in her favor.

But just before the blade reached the princess, another blade came into the seen and stopped it. Izumi watched in relief as Ryo lured

the man away from Rika, and finished him off. Izumi switched her eyes to the rest seeing that they were all either finishing off their last

opponent or already finished. Auron, Kouji and Yamato were finished, while Mimi was just finishing off her last opponent. The

last one she looked at was Kouji and that was when she noticed the guy who had just got off the ground and was approaching the prince

from behind. She quickly ran over to him shouting, "Watch out!" he turned around in time to see Izumi hit the guy with her bar in the

stomach. She looked back at Kouji to see if e was okay, but he wasn't there, he was standing over by Auron. '_Well he could of at _

_least shown that he was grateful for saving his life, and a **thank you **would've been nice too_**', **she thought rather angrily She looked

back over to Rika to see if she was alright. Well she wasn't exactly alright. She was physically, for she had wrapped up her wound with

some kind of cloth, but she was sure real mad throwing all sorts and kinds of insults at Ryo who was just laughing awkwardly and

mumbling, "If this is what I get for saving a damsel in distress, then I'll never do it again…" Izumi sighed inwardly and then thought,

'_Well at least I never got yelled at_.'

Izumi miniaturized her bar and stuck it into her pocket and headed over to the rest of the group.

"Come on everyone, let's move. We can still make it to the top of the hill before it's totally dark if we hustle." Auron said, and before

anyone could object, he began to make his way through the semi-

dark forest once again. And so they all followed once again, but not so quietly since Rika still hadn't finished the series of insults she

had been pouring at pour Ryo who looked like he was going to pop at any minute. Izumi made a mental note to never try to help Rika

unless she wanted to get hit by Rika's chain of non-stopping **_thankyous _**as Ryo had explained them.

They walked in a straight path for a while and then bean to climb a hill. After walking up it for about half an hour, the sun had set completely.

"If we continue to go up for about fifteen minutes, I believe we will be at the top of this hill." said Auron as they all continued to walk.

And surely after another fifteen minutes the ground gradually became flat once again, only this time much higher than before. The

stopped at the very top of the tall hill, and they all looked down the other side from which they could see a very large forest down

below.

"Memo Forest…" murmured Ryo as they were all looking down at it in a rather mystified manner.

"Memo Forest? Aren't they all Memo forests?" Izumi asked to no one in particular, as she was staring at the beautiful forest herself.

"This is _The_ Memo Forest, not _a_ Memo forest." Yamato answered her.

"Oh," she said still marveling it, "…it's beautiful…"

"It's forbidden." said Kouji.

"Forbidden?" she asked, "Why is it forbidden?"

"It's a long story." said Mimi.

"Come, let's light a fire and we'll tell it to you while we're resting." said Ryo.

Everyone pitched in and help light a fire, and then they sat down and began to cook the meat apples that Ryo had brought with him from they're last stop. Once everyone had finished eating, Mimi began to tell Izumi about Memo Forest.

"A long time ago when Memo was still new, it wasn't called Memo. It was called something else but I don't remember, but

that's not important, so anyways, people began to explore the land. One day some guy was walking and he came to a big beautiful

forest so he decided to explore it. While he was walking through it he began to see his old friends playing only they were much

younger. He thought the forest had some kind of power that could make people young again, so he went back to his village and told

everyone. No one believed him so he made them come with him to see for themselves. So the next day everyone went with the man, but

they never saw what he saw. Instead they each saw something different. Some saw their friends and themselves as young kids

playing, some saw themselves jumping around a few years younger, and some saw themselves the same age only doing something else.

It was then that somebody noticed that what he was seeing had happened to him before. Soon others realized the same thing. They

finally reached a conclusion that the forest could reflect people's memories. The people thought that it was such a lovely gift to have

such a forest, so they decided to call this whole place Memo, and that forest was named the Memo forest."

"It can reflect people's memories! Wow! That is so cool!" Izumi exclaimed, "But why is it forbidden then?"

"I was getting there." Mimi said.

"People began to go to the forest everyday to see their memories more clearly and so they began to depend on it more than on their

own minds." Ryo took over, "Then as time went by, people began to have memory problems and then mind problems somehow, and

ended up getting themselves killed. For example they forgot which plants were poisoned or they forgot the way to some place and

ended up getting lost and then died. Well I personally that people had just been dying because of coincidence but hey, that's what they

say. Also some people would go to the forest so they could see a person that they lost which gradually made them go crazy. And now it only shows memories that are the hardest on the soul. So

anyway, the king of that time forbade everyone from going there again, and so it became known as the Forbidden Forest even though

most people still call it Memo Forest."

Izumi digested the story and thought for a brief moment before asking, "Do you choose the memory you want to see, or does it just randomly show any memory?"

"It shows the memory that has the greatest effect on the person. It could be happy or sad." answered Yamato, "and if you concentrate your mind carefully on a certain memory, I think you can see it too."

"Can you see another person's memory or only your own?" she asked.

"You can only see it if you are in the other person's memory or if they really want you to see it too." answered Mimi.

They all sat in silence as each one of them had his/her own thoughts. Finally Auron broke the silence.

"I'll be on watch first." he said firmly.

"And I'll be after you." said Ryo. And so on, until the order of who will be on watch became the following: Auron, Ryo, Mimi, Kouji, Izumi, Yamato, and finally Rika.

"Which route are we going to take?" asked Yamato.

"We will go through the forest", Auron replied.

"The forest? You mean the Memo Forest? I thought you just told me it was forbidden!" exclaimed Izumi.

"It is, but it's the fastest way to get to the princess's cemetery, and we probably wont be attacked there since the Queens guards are very keen on keeping away from that forest.", Auron replied plainly.

Izumi had both her eyebrows arched at him in question, "The princess's cemetery? You mean Princess Mia? Why are we going there?"

"To get the supreme stone, why else?" Kouji said coolly.

'The supreme stone?" Izumi asked.

"Yeah. Remember I told you that you need to get all the colored stones, which each of us has, and the supreme stone, which princess Mia has, to get the pure stone?", Mimi said.

Izumi went back in time and recalled that Mimi and indeed told her that, and then she said, "We have to get it from the old skeleton of a princess?"

"Well not exactly. You see the queen had the digimon put a spell on her body to preserve it, so she is still a whole dead body." said Yamato.

"Oh.", was all Izumi could say after all that.

"Okay now, everyone get some rest. We should really make some progress tomorrow since all these fights have slowed us down." said Auron.

* * *

It was now Kouji's turn to be on watch. He leaned against a tree as he stared down at Memo Forest and as his thoughts took over him.

(FLASHBACK)

The image of a young prince with black hair leaned against a tree as he watched all the other children playing. He didn't like being in the crowd or hearing all the loud noises but he knew his parents would never let him leave.

He closed his eyes and tried to keep all the loud noises away, and it worked, only, he heard a soft girlish voice instead.

"Are you sleeping?" asked the sweet voice.

He opened his eyes only to see a little blond girl with green eyes wearing a cute purple dress staring at him contently.

"No.", he replied slightly annoyed.

"Why are you always mad?" the blonde asked.

"I'm not." he answered simply.

"Well I've never seen you smile before." she said.

"…". Kouji shut his eyes once more.

There was a long pause and Kouji thought that the girl had run off, but to his surprise she was sitting on the ground by the side of the tree watching the other kids play happily.

"Why don't you just go and play with them?" he asked after a while.

The girl looked up at him and then replied with a bit of embarrassment, "Because I don't have any friends, and I don't know how to make any."

"All you have to do is ask one of them to be your friend. It's quite simple." he said coolly.

She looked back up at him, and then asked timidly, "Could you be my friend?"

He looked a little taken aback. Nobody ever asked him that before. "Are, are you sure?" he asked her unsurely.

"Yes. I bet we will be the best friends ever!" she said excitedly.

He thought for a moment, and then replied, "Hi, I'm Kouji."

She smiled getting the hint that he agreed and then she said, "Nice to meet you Kouji, my name is Mia."

(END FLASHBACK)

'_My name is Mia…Mia…Mia…_' her voice echoed in his head on and on.

"Argh!" he shook his head in anger, "Why can't you leave me alone!"

He stared down at the forest with glaring eyes, '_That stupid forest is probably bringing all of these memories back. I guess its magic is strong enough to make you remember things from a distance too_.' He slammed his fist against the tree as more of his memories forcefully circled his mind.

_I'm so tired of being here,_

_Suppressed by all my childish fears_,

To his luck, he heard a noise of movement from behind him that caused all his memories to depart. He looked behind him where the others were sleeping and saw someone shifting and turning in their sleep. He got closer to see who it was, and as he did so, this person began to scream quietly in their sleep.

"No… please…, somebody help me…!"

It was Izumi. She looked really scared and troubled and just wanted to escape. Kouji looked at her in pity. He had seen that look before, and he had never wanted to see it again, but there it was: the same terrified face his best friend had on for the last time.

_And if you have to leave,_

_I wish that you would just leave_,

He decided to wake her up and save her from whatever was haunting her dreams. He slowly bent down and shook her steadily, "Wake up.", he ordered.

But she didn't wake up. Instead she began to move more violently and screamed even louder. "No…! Please help me!"

She was getting out of control, so he grabbed both her shoulders and shook her violently, "Izumi!" he yelled at her but not loud enough to wake the others. She finally woke up in surprise and tears began to swell up in her eyes.

Izumi woke up so suddenly she couldn't think straight. She didn't know where she was, who she was, and she couldn't see anything in

front of her except for a pair of dark blue eyes. She only knew that she was very scared because of something, and she could feel cold

tears slide down her cheeks. She could only cry. She felt so helpless, as if she were just a little lost kid. She stared into the blue eyes

before her and could almost here a soothing voice calling to her. And then slowly everything began to come back to her. She could

now see the complete outline of Kouji, and once he realized she was conscious he got up and walked away.

_Because your presence still lingers here,_

_And it won't leave me alone,_

Kouji made his way to where the hill looked down on Memo Forest, and stood there feeling all of his pain attack him. '_Why can't you just leave me alone and go away_?'

_These wounds won't seem to heal,_

_This pain is just too real_,

He heard someone approaching him, so he turned to see Izumi. She walked up to him and followed his eyes down to the forest.

"Admiring the forest?" she asked quietly.

He remained staring at the forest with a look of hate in his eyes. She looked at him and saw the look in his eyes.

"Is something bothering you?" she asked cautiously.

He remained silent for a little longer and then finally said, "She died in that forest."

_There is just too much that time can not erase_,

She was about to ask who he was talking about, but then she remembered what Mimi had told her and figured he meant Princess Mia.

She wanted to ask him something but couldn't decide if she should or not, since she didn't want to hurt him. But curiosity got the best of her.

"Do you know what happened? I mean…, how she died?" she asked hesitantly, but then she quickly added feeling guilty, "You don't have to answer that."

There was another moments silence, and then he replied, "Yes, but I would rather not talk about it."

Kouji could feel tears threatening to fall but he forcefully kept them back. He just couldn't be weak he had vowed that to himself.

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears,_

_When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears,_

As he stared at the forest, another memory made its way back into his mind.

(FLASHBACK)

Mia was sitting on a rock with her hands to her face crying.

The young version of Kouji made his way towards her.

"Are you okay?" he asked uneasily.

She looked up at him with swollen red eyes. "My dad just died…a disease killed him...he said he would always be there for me…but he's gone!" she said before bursting into tears again.

Kouji sat down beside her. They were both very young at the ages of about5 and 6. He put his arm around her shoulder and said, "Its okay, I'm sure he never wanted to leave. It was just that disease's fault."

She wiped her tears away, and put on a small smile and then said, "I hope I never get killed by a disease or anyone."

He smiled back at her and then said, "Well may dad is teaching me how to fight. When I learn how to fight well, I'll never let anyone kill you. I'll fight away all of your fears!"

She giggled a bit and then said, "Thanks Kouji. I know I can always depend on you."

And then they both began to laugh happily forgetting all of their troubles.

(END FLASHBACK)

_I held your hand through all of these years,_

_You still have…All of me…_,

"Ahhh, get out of my head!" Kouji said furiously forgetting Izumi's presence.

She looked at him curiously and asked, "Who do you want out of your head?"

He refused to meet her eyes, but then he replied, "Mia! She won't stop haunting my thoughts!"

_You used to captivate me,_

_By your resonating light_,

She looked at him thoughtfully and said, "Do you think that she would want you to be miserable?"

"Of course not! But how can I not be with all of these memories stuck in my head!"

_But now I'm bound by the life you left behind_,

Izumi remained silent for a little while in thought and then she finally said, "Do you really want to completely forget her? I mean would you want her to forget you?"

He turned to look at her with painful eyes and then softly replied, "No, but I think she already forgot me."

_Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams_,

"I think all of those memories are a message from her to tell you to go on with your life."

_Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me_,

"Go on with my life? It was my fault!"

Izumi felt confused since she didn't even know how the princess died but what he just said allowed her to find the right explanation, "Well then she wants to tell you that it wasn't your fault. She wants you to stop believing that."

He took her words in painfully.

_These wounds won't seem to heal,_

_This pain is just too real, _

_There's just too much that time can not erase_,

"But…" he began.

"No buts, you can't change the past anyway."

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears,_

_When you'd scream I'd fight away all of you fears,_

He turned his eyes back to the forest, and stared ahead until his eyes rested on a certain river that was evident between the trees.

(FLASHBACK)

"Come on Kouji, let's follow the river!" said an exited Mia.

"Wait Mia! That river leads to the forbidden forest." said Kouji.

"It's not a dangerous place. My father told me himself. We could use it to be our hideout! It will be like our own world since nobody ever goes there. Come on.", and she ran ahead excitedly not even letting Kouji argue any further, so he just ran after her, and joined her laughter.

(END FLASHBACK)

_I held your hand through all of these years, _

_You still have…all of me,_

"Why are you here?" he suddenly asked with a little chill in his voice.

Izumi was startled by his sudden change of subject and tone, and his question confused her a bit.

_I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone_,

"Well actually for two reasons," she started.

_But though you're still with me_,

"First of all to thank you for waking me up from that nightmare, so thank you," she said, "And second to tell you that you're shift is over."

He took one last look at the forest and then glanced a quick glance at Izumi, and then turned to leave.

_I've been alone all along_,

Izumi looked down at the forest as memories also entered her head. She could here Joyce's laughter again, and slowly a tear trickled down her cheek.

"Izumi?"

Izumi turned to see Kouji standing a little distance away, so she quickly wiped away her tear.

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears_,

"Yeah?" she questioned.

"Thank you."

_When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears_,

"Oh it was nothing; I'm usually good at giving advice."

"No, I meant for stopping that guy that I missed in the fight earlier."

_I held your hand through all of these years_,

Izumi smiled and then said, "Oh, I didn't really think I was going to get a thank you from you."

He gave a little smirk and then he turned around once again, and Izumi turned back to look at the forest.

He turned back one more time and glanced at her, and they he made his way to go back to sleep.

_You still have…all of me…_

* * *

Everyone sat down silently eating breakfast. Each one had his or her mind set on the same thought, 'The Forbidden Forest'. No one was comfortable with the idea of passing through it, but it was what they had to do.

"Okay get yourselves prepared, we have to leave now", said Auron once everyone had finished eating the last of what remained of the meat apples.

Everyone stood up and put their weapons in place, sneaking glances at the forest secretly.

They began to head down the tall hill. Izumi could see that once they reached the bottom they would be about ten feet away from the forest. She secretly was anxious to get to the forest, but she didn't show it since everyone else seemed very reluctant to even take another step forward.

Finally they reached the end of the hill. They all stared at the forest, none of them showed any emotion.

"I have never been in the forest, so it may take a while to get there." said Auron.

"I know the way." said Kouji in a cold tone.

All eyes turned to him questioning, but he didn't look like he was going to give them an explanation. He just walked ahead of them towards the forest completely ignoring the looks he was getting. They had no choice but to follow.

Izumi walked in the back so that she could admire the forest without drawing attention. The trees were so tall, green, and so full

of life. And the air in the forest seemed so fresh and even had a sweet kind of taste. She could have sworn that the forest was

playing music too, for she could hear a soft tune playing through the breeze. And there were many clearings throughout the forest

allowing her to see the sky, which seemed more pure and blue than she had ever seen in her entire life. The only way she could describe

it was 'Magnificent!'

But as the continued to walk in silence, Izumi noticed that the tune she was hearing seemed to be a very sad and miserable tune. And it also seemed to change a bit as if telling a story, for one minute it would seem soft and kind of cheerful, and then it would become kind of mad and fast, and then it would seem sad, and then it would repeat itself.

Izumi kept on marveling at the forest as they all walked on in silence when suddenly she bumped into Auron who was walking ahead of her.

"Why did you stop like that?" she asked him feeling kind of upset because her thoughts were interrupted.

He didn't reply but merely looked ahead of him towards where Yamato was standing. She noticed that they were all staring at him,

while he seemed to be looking at something in the middle of the clearance that he could only see. Then Izumi realized that he must

be watching one of his memories, and judging from his face, it was a sad memory.

He continued to stare at it for about five minutes. Then Mimi walked ahead to him and asked, "Would you like to let us see it? It might help."

He didn't say anything but then after a minute or so, an image of a young boy with blond hair and a young beautiful lady with also blond hair came into view. Izumi figured that they must be Yamato when he was younger, and his mother. Soon their voices could be heard.

'Do you understand me Yamato? No matter what happens, I always want you to be kind and honest, for that will be your key to success,' came his mother's voice.

'I understand mom. How can I forget anyway if you're going to be here to remind me about it all the time?', said Yamato.

'I will always be in your heart Yamato, but maybe not where you can see me.', said his mother.

'Huh? What's that supposed to mean?' asked Yamato.

'Don't worry about it now honey,' laughed his mother, 'you'll understand when you're older, but just promise me that you will always remember my words no matter what happens.'

'I promise', said Yamato, and then the image evaporated into the air until it looked like it had never been there.

There was another long silence, as all eyes lay on Yamato watching his sorrowful expression. Finally Yamato began to walk again, and so they moved on once again.

* * *

Trying to keep my mind ahead,

I only fail and look back to the past,

So many things I lack the knowledge of,

And so many secrets laying in the dark,

…Watching Over You…

* * *

**That's all for chapter eight! So how did u all like it? I didn't really think that the song suited that much, but I like it a lot so I decided to use it. Do u guys want me to call yamato matt instead? If you do tell me cuz I might decide to change it the next chapter.**

**Suspense Questions: Why did the Queen's men seem to give Izumi attention after she revealed her name to them, and why was Auron bothered by their questions? Will they really be safe going through the forest, or will they face other problems there? Will the others be strong enough to keep their memories in their heads or will they be haunted by their worst memories the whole way through? **


	9. welcome back friendship

Blah blah blah… same story same excuse…

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon or the characters, like all the other authors on this site… what a pity…

Oh and sorry for the spelling mistake last chapter, and I changed yamato's name to matt since that was what Izumi Rules wanted (she was the only one who said anything about it)

Three cheers for all the great reviewers! I wasn't even going to update now if it weren't for u great people!

Chapter Nine: Welcome Back Friends

You may not know,

I'm there with you,

Protecting you,

…Watching over you…

* * *

They continued to walk in silence. Even though Matt didn't want to show it, they all knew that he was thinking about his now dead mother, so they respected his feelings and kept quiet until he gathered himself again. Well all of them except Auron, that is, who continuously reminded then to stay focused and not let the forest get the best of them.

Suddenly Matt turned around at directed straight to Rika, "This is your entire father's fault! If it weren't for him, we would all be living in peace right now: not living without our parents and on some stupid journey to set what he ruined back to right!"

He was furious, and looked like he wanted to start a fight, but Rika just stood there looking completely uninterested with what he was saying. She was just looking at their surroundings in a bored kind of way.

This seemed to get Matt angrier. "Don't ignore me! You just don't want to admit that your dad was a criminal", he yelled at her.

This got her attention, for she turned directly to him and gave him a blazing glare. You could almost see flames burning in between them from the heat of their angriness.

"he wasn't always like that", she hissed at him.

"Oh yeah right… A criminal **_is_**, **_was_**, and **_always will be_** a criminal!"

"That's it Matt! Her father did what he did and u can't change it. And it's not her fault so give yourself a break", Ryo yelled at him looking seriously mad, like Izumi had never seen him before.

Matt turned and glared at him and then said darkly, "he killed your mom too, and she's supporting him so she's no better."

Izumi had about enough. They were all supposed to be on the same side, so why were they fighting like this?

"Stop it!", she shouted at them all and gained their attention, "Rika said he wasn't always like that so why don't u just listen to what she has to say!"

"Who cares what she has to say. Nothing can change what he did, just like _Ryo_ said", he said still glaring at him.

"You promised her to always be kind and honest no matter what", Mimi said dryly starring straight into his eyes.

He met her cold stare and then looked away and said, "Leave my mom out of this".

"You promised her", Mimi repeated.

"Fine", he finally said.

Auron who was leaning against a tree next to Kouji finally put his voice into the conversation.

"We've walked long enough, so we'll take a break here and listen to what Rika has to say and move on."

They all sat down and waited for Rika to start.

Rika crossed her arms and started to talk without looking at anyone in particular.

"I saw him poison the drinks."

"Ha! You see? I told you he did, didn't I?" said Matt, looking as if he had just won the greatest battle ever.

"But he wasn't always like that," continued Rika completely ignoring him.

"Who cares if he wasn't always like that? He is the reason that Ryo and I have got no mom!" Matt said.

Rika looked at him and stared at him really hard, and then her eyes started to water up as she said, "You're lucky you even have any parent at all."

This surprised nearly all of them. It was rare for Rika to show any face expression, but to cry? She never cried. Well only Izumi had seen her cry. Even Auron and Kouji looked a little shocked, and Matt looked like he had just been hit in the face.

"Her father messed up, okay?" Izumi said, feeling that Rika didn't want to talk anymore, "he might have messed up your lives, but he messed up his own and Rika's even more, so let's just put this all in the past and move on."

Auron stood up right after Izumi's words and said, "Come on, I think we've had enough rest for now."

Everyone slowly got their things together, and began to walk yet once again.

While walking, Matt seemed to make his way towards Rika many times, but each time he would only open his mouth to say something and just close it again and lag behind.

After a few hours of walking, he finally was able to say something.

"I'm really sorry for all those things I said before. I guess I was just too blinded by my anger and too selfish to realize that you and the rest had any problems at all, and maybe worse than my own. I, well, I hope that we're still friends?"

Rika looked at him cautiously looking for the truth in his words, and then to everyone's surprise, she smiled.

"Yeah", she said simply.

Mimi ran up to Matt and gave him a hug, "Welcome back Matt! And I hope you've learned something."

Matt looked a bit surprised at first, but then he smiled at her and said, "Yeah, there are important things that you should never leave behind, because if you do they'll just make your life a living hell!"

Mimi raised a brow in confusion, but Matt just laughed and walked on.

Ryo walked up to Rika and put an arm around her, "So I guess you're going to be your old crazy self again?"

Rika threw his arm off her and laughed, "The only one who is crazy here is you!"

"I don't think so, you see I wasn't the one used to walk up to sleeping digimon and throw a bucket of water on their heads and then run away like a maniac to save myself', he said laughing at her.

"Well if I can remember well, you use to believe that you had super powers and you were going to jump off a cliff to prove that you could fly if it wasn't for the fact that your dad found out a grounded you for a month for your crazy thoughts!"

"I hate to tell you this Rika, but I think something has gotten to your head, you should see a doctor because that never happened", Ryo said mockingly.

Rika whacked him on the head, "I think you're the one who should see a doctor!"

They both laughed and continued walking.

Izumi smiled at the four of them. '_I'm glad all of their personal problems are over. I'm not sure about Kouji and Auron, but I think I'm the only one with problems now_.'

* * *

Laughing their problems away,

I laugh in happiness along with them,

But I feel the absence of something,

And searching inside is not easy,

…Watching Over You…

* * *

**Im really sorry for this short chapter and the long wait, but I will make it up to you in the next chapter. I have exams all this week , so I wont be updating for now. I know there wasn't suspense in this chap so please forgive me. I was the worst chapter I ever wrote. sighs. Well anyway please review, but don't be too hard on me.**


	10. headaches, confusions, and dreams

**I know…ur wondering y the hell I took so damn long to update right? Well I don't really have much of an excuse. I seem to be losing my inspiration. Sad isn't it. Well I finally updated anyway, just for the sake of all u great readers, and especially all of u who have reviewed this fic.**

**this chapter is the longest yet, to make up for the long wait. sorry again. **

**Okay this chapter…umm I didn't exactly review it so don't bother me if I have weird mistakes lol. I don't know what to think of it really. good or bad? I don't really know. But anyway I'll stop blabbing on and on about nothing and let u read what I've kept away for so long.**

Disclaimer:I don't own digimon or Auron.

Chapter ten : headaches, confusions, and dreams

_You may not know,_

_I'm there with you,_

_Protecting you,_

…_Watching over you…_

_

* * *

_

They continued to walk through the forest now in harmony, bravery, and happiness. Well all except for Auron and Kouji who didn't seem to show much emotion. Izumi walked happily knowing that the others were happy. But despite this happiness she still felt troubled deep inside. She didn't know why but this feeling seemed to grow more and more as they walked deeper and deeper into the forest. She also noticed something else that didn't seem right. The gentle tune in the magical forest seemed to be sad and a bit frightened now. It wasn't following the sequence it was when they first walked into the forest. She thought at first that the forest's music was reflecting their feelings, but now she wasn't so sure, for everyone looked happy now except for Auron and Kouji who didn't seem to show any emotion. Something wrong was going to happen, she just new it. She felt it. There was much more to this forest than she had ever thought. She brushed away the thought as soon as someone said the word food. She was too busy trying to understand her feelings that she almost forgot about her great hunger.

''food!" she exclaimed out loud, ''where?"

''Over here'', said Ryo, ''there's a meat apple tree here.''

Izumi sighed and then asked Kouji who was in front of her now, "Is that the only kind of food here?"

Kouji turned around and smirked at her, then he said," outside of the kingdoms you mean? Well yes.''

''Oh...well I can't wait till this is all over so I can eat something other than meat again.''

''Come on and help us you two.'', said Mimi.

''What should we do, I mean I don't think we all need to pick the apples.'' Izumi said.

''you're right, why don't you light a fire like you usually do'', said Mimi.

"Okay, fine." she replied.

They gathered dry sticks and started a fire just the others finished picking a great amount of the forest's meat apples. The all sat down and began eating hungrily.

Kouji ate his meat apple slowly and quietly. '_Why did we have to stop here from all the places we could have chosen?' _he thought miserably.

He looked straight ahead of him a little distance away from where they were sitting where his eyes fell upon a certain tree that had a hole in it.

A sunray broke through a cloud and shone into the hole for a second a then was covered up again from the cloud again. During that time something sparkled within the hole.

Kouji sighed even more miserably now and set his food down... '_Why…?_' he thought as the horrible memory crept back to haunt him once more.

He stared on at the tree as if hypnotized by it. He watched until the younger image of him slowly appeared running happily towards the tree.

Izumi noticed that Kouji had stopped eating and that he seemed to be staring at something in the distance. She followed his sight until her eyes found what he was staring at.

'_Wait a sec. isn't that the boy I keep on seeing here? What's he doing here? It's a forbidden place, I'd better go and tell him to leave.' _she thought to herself as she stood up.

Everyone looked up at her with a questioning look except Kouji who was still hypnotized in his thoughts.

"Where are you going?" asked Rika.

"Huh? Oh I'm just going to tell that ki…" she cut herself off as she saw the boy running off, "Hey stop right there!"

She ran off as fast as she could after him.

They all looked over to where she was running but didn't see anything or anyone.

"Izumi! Stop! Where are you going!" Auron called after her standing up. The others stood up as well, and grabbed their stuff and food ready to run after her.

Kouji stared at himself running off in panic. He knew where he was going. He was going to watch her die, going off to cry for his first time. There was nothing he could do. He started to move his eyes away, but something suddenly caught his sight. It was Izumi. She seemed to be running after himself. Shock filled his body. History was repeating itself, he sensed it.

He snapped back to reality and stood up quickly. "This time I can do something!" he yelled and ran off after her.

The others stopped in surprise and watched as Kouji ran past them with a strong look of determination on his face. They were all confused that it took them a few minutes to realize what was going on. Auron was the first to figure it out and he began to run after them. The others caught on right after him and quickly ran after him.

Izumi ran after the boy as fast as she could and began to gain on him. As she got closer she could hear the sound of a girl screaming. '_It must be that girl he's always with. She's probably in danger. I've got to save her and make sure they never come back here again'_, she thought as she ran. And soon the little girl came in sight, but so did someone else or something else…

* * *

"Did you finally get a hold of them?" asked the queen.

"I'm sorry your majesty, but they got away", answered one of the guards.

"Away? What do you mean by that?"

"They went into the forbidden forest your highness, and we can't go in there."

"What! In this case you can go there!" the queen yelled at him.

"B...But your majesty it's too dangerous to go in there. We all have families we must take care of; we can't afford to lose our l…"

"Quiet! You dare defy me!" stormed the queen.

"P…P…Please, doesn't make us go in there. For our families, f… for your d...daughter…" he begged.

The queen stared at him with dangerous eyes, as if she would kill him on the spot. She pointed a dangerous finger at him. She began to shake violently as he looked mortified, "You…you…." she began to say.

She stared on at the man with flames in her eyes, yet somewhere deep inside; they showed a sign of painful sadness.

In the place of the terrified soldier in front of her, images began to play around. The soldier suddenly took the form of her dead daughter.

First she was sitting down, laughing the sweetest little girl's laugh you could ever hear.

Next she was skipping along the riverbank smiling happily.

The last one was of her crying, tears sliding down the outline of her little fragile face.

The queen tore her eyes away from them and turned around, quietly walking over to a window.

"You're dismissed", she said finally.

The guard looked rather shocked at first, unable to believe his ears, but then he shed into tears of happiness and began thanking the queen so much, "thank you your highness, oh thank you so much for understand…"

"Just go. You have disappointed me, so leave before I change my mind", the queen cut him off in a voice that lack emotion.

"Y…Yes your highness." said the guard, and then he got to his feet and left the room.

The queen sighed as she stared out through the window at nothing in particular.

'_Mia…why do you haunt me my child….? I am working my hardest to get revenge on the monsters that killed you. Just wait a bit longer… soon I'll have the chosen one and I will defeat her and the ones she is fighting for, and they you will finally rest in peace_.'

"I will get her", she whispered to herself, "I will make her suffer the way she has made me and Mia suffer… Alwine!"

The door of the room opened, "Yes my queen?" replied an icy voice.

"Gather ten of your strongest men immediately. I've a mission for you."

Alwine smiled evilly to himself, "As you wish your majesty." And then he left the room silently.

The queen turned around and left the room. She walked down the corridor, down long staircase, and then down another corridor. She finally stopped as she reached a large room. She walked in and inside was a group of angry looking people.

"So did you get them yet?" asked one of them in a harsh sense.

"No, not yet. Now is that how you speak to your high queen?"

"Don't tell me how to speak! I'm a king myself, and everyone here is either a king like me or a queen."

"I am well aware of that, but as the green king that you are, I merely expected more respect."

"Your highness, please just don't harm my daughter, she's all we have. You yourself know how horrible it feels to lose your only child", pleaded the yellow queen.

The queen looked at her and then replied, 'I told you before, and I told Alwine to make sure that he doesn't harm anyone. I'm only looking for the chosen one. She's the only one I intend to harm, and I shall be doing that personally."

"But do you really believe that Alwine is trustworthy?" asked the black Queen.

"Of course I do. It was Alwine himself who made these plans the best so that we can all live a better life and forget about all of our sorrowful pasts."

"Oh, so making a sorrowful future is his idea of getting rid of a sorrowful past?" said the black king plainly but the sarcasm in his voice was very clear.

The queen glared at him while he glared back evenly. Then she directed her eyes to each and every other king and queen only to meet a series of more hateful glares. This only made her angrier than she was to begin with.

The room was filled with silence and the tension was so unbearable for the queen that she finally blurted, "Nobody understands the pain I'm going through but Alwine! I've lost all my family, I have to rule this entire world, and there are those horrible murderers trying to escape and cause more pain to me and all of the civilians here in Memo!"

That seemed to have been a mistake, for after saying that a series of responses interrupted the room.

"If by saying monsters you're referring to the digimon then I'll have to tell you that I trust them with my life and they are not monsters! If anyone here should be called a monster then it would have to be you!" hissed the yellow king.

"Not understand your pain! My wife was murdered and you took me away from my son and made him take over the kingdom all on his own! And now you have your guards that I have no trust at all in after him and the others!" yelled the green king furiously.

"And if that's not enough for you, then why don't you think of the Rika, the red princess. She's only a teenager and she's lost her mother and fath…"

"Don't you _ever_ mention _him_ in my presence again!" snapped the now outraged high queen, "In fact, _never_ mention him at all! And never question me again! I know what's best for this land and I will do it all _my_ way! The digimon will all be destroyed and I assure you that, cause if killing my daughter in such a horrible way isn't enough proof that they are murderers then I don't know what is!"

"You don't have proof that it was the digimon! And even if it was, only the one who did it should be punished, not all of them." responded the yellow queen.

"I said stop! I don't want to hear it anymore! I'm the high queen here and I will do what I wish! You can thank me later when the land is full of peace again.", and with that she turned around and stormed out of the room.

"Why I ought to…," began the yellow king, but his wife cut him off.

"Calm down honey. I believe that deep down inside she knows that what she is doing is wrong, but her sadness and grief has blinded her. I'm sure she will realize this soon herself. Or maybe that is what the chosen one's job is supposed to be."

Silence filled the room once more as they all began to drown in they're own thoughts.

* * *

Izumi stared in horror as she ran through the forest. There was little boy only a few feet away from her, and a little farther ahead of him was a cloaked figure holding what appeared to be a very sharp knife in his left hand, and then not so very far from him, well in fact only about three or four feet, was the young girl.

Izumi's eyes were focused on the cloaked figure. It looked like the outline of a very tall and large man to her. Thoughts began rushing through her mind as her eyes trailed down to his left hand.

'_looks like I'm going to have to fight him if I want too help these kids', _she reached her hand into her pocket and pulled out the piece of black metal which she almost instantly expanded it into its fighting size. '_This is really bad. How could I possibly fight this guy? He looks really strong and the only thing I'm good at doing is defending myself…I hope the others decided to follow me…_'

As the thought came to an end, she felt her head begin to hurt and her vision began to slip away from her. She had a bad feeling about it all and wanted to stop and wait for the others whom she believed were following her. The only problem was her legs wouldn't stop. She felt that she no longer could control her body. It continued to run on its own account as her sight of the figures ahead of her slowly disappeared.

She felt sick to the stomach as her legs kept on moving. She was out of breath and scared now. She couldn't see anything anymore, it was all just blank. '_What's going on? Have I gone blind? Why can't I control myself?_' More and more questions made they're way into her mind. It was all unbearable.

All of a sudden her vision began to come back. She could now see the color of green around her, but the three that were recently in front of her were gone. She decided to look back to see if the others were anywhere near her.

Big mistake. Right behind her was the cloaked figure. She looked up to see his face but couldn't see it because it was darkened by his hood. She could only see his mouth form a smirk as he continued to chase her.

She had never felt such fear grow inside her before. She gripped her bar tightly but she couldn't get rid of the feeling inside of her. She never felt so defenseless in her life. Now she was the one in control, or at least that was how it felt. She moved her legs and pushed past her limit. The only thought in her head was to run away. Far away from this guy.

She suddenly realized something. Something that made her fear increase rapidly. This was all so familiar to her. She had been in this situation before. Only not only once… the thought sickened her but she could not deny it…this was the dream she had been having all the time, or rather the _nightmare_…but it didn't make sense. How could it be that she was having the nightmare before it even happened?

She ran on and on not knowing where she was going. Her mind was occupied by the feeling of only terror, her thoughts had some how deserted her head. If she had realized this she probably would have said it was strange. Ahead of her, her eyes could see her path ending…

* * *

The sound of the waterfall was loud and clear. Kouji began too worry that he was going to be too late…again. But then she finally came into sight. He ran even faster now that he could see her.

He was only about 20 feet away from her when he saw her nearing the edge of the cliff. His heart was pounding with such speed that he thought it might fly out.

It was only a matter of seconds now. "I will get there, I will save her, I will, I will…" he repeatedly said to himself as he got closer and closer…

* * *

She was only ten feet away from the end of her path now. She turned around to see if she had finally escaped from that guy.

He was gone. Relief slowly washed over her as she turned her head around again and slowed down. Now in front of her was that little boy sitting at the edge of the cliff. She stopped right beside him. He was staring down at the bottom of the waterfall where many boulders and a river streamed. She reached her hand to put it on her shoulder and opened her mouth to say something, but she stopped as her hand felt so very cold.

She stared in horror and she watched her hand go right through the boy. She looked at his face and felt butterflies in her stomach. Her head was spinning as she felt her body numbly fall over. The last thing she saw before passing out was the boy's face, yet somehow it looked older…

* * *

Kouji breathed heavily as he held the unconscious body of Izumi in his arms. He smiled inwardly to himself. He had made it. He saved her this time.

He watched as his former self dissolved into the air. 'How _come she could see that'_, he thought silently, '_could it be that Auron was right…no…I can't accept that…_'

(FLASHBACK)

Izumi was sleeping calmly under a tree. Everyone else was sitting down around the fire talking in whispers carefully so that they do not wake her up.

"It does sound like something we should consider. There is a great resemblance between the two."

"Yeah I guess we all figured that part out." Matt said.

"But if what you are saying is true, then shouldn't we ask her at least?" asked Mimi.

"No, apparently it seems that she has lost her memory of everything. That will only confuse her.", Auron replied.

"Well then shouldn't we recall some of our most memorable times together and see how she responds? I mean she might remember if it's really her.", said Ryo.

"No, it might make her feel left out, since there is still the possibility that I'm wrong about this. And if I am right, then I think it's better if we wait till we get there and see what happens." he replied.

"This is just bull!" exploded Kouji surprisingly and very out of character-like, "What's with you guys? Are you saying she just disappeared for six years and then suddenly reappeared in the forest with no memory! Or are you saying that she came back from the dead! She died in front of my very two own eyes! I've had enough torture already! She _never_ came back and she _never will_!" and with that he walked off furiously in a random direction.

Mimi made a motion that she would go after him, but Matt stopped her. "Let him be. He needs to cool down on his own."

"That's right. And he could be right to. That was only a mere guess, we can only wait and see, so everybody just forget about it and not mention it anymore till then.", Auron stated indifferently.

Everyone fell silent. Many questions filled their heads like, '_if it's true then how did she survive?_' or, '_Where has she been all this time then? Was she really in another world as she said?_'

But their questions stayed unanswered and they knew they would have to wait. But waiting was never easy for any of them. They had already prepared and waited for the appearance of the chosen one for over five years. But this wasn't ever something they would have even considered to prepare for. This journey was more than they had ever bargained for. They thought it would simply be leading the chosen one to the queen so that he/she would save the digimon and bring back peace to Memo, but apparently it was more a journey to the past, to uncover all the secrets that were left in the dark, to solve everything from the roots. Yes it did sound like the wise thing to do, the thing they should have thought of from the very beginning, or should I say the thing they should have _chosen_ from the very beginning. But the past was a painful memory for everyone.

(END FLASHBACK)

Kouji sighed as he stood up and walked away from the edge of the cliff and lay the slender female's body down beside the nearest tree, and then sat down himself beside her waiting for the others to find them.

He studied her face for the first time and realized she was quite beautiful. Although he hated to admit it, there was indeed a great resemblance.

As much as he hated the thought of it all, some small part of him was hoping greatly that Auron was right. He shrugged away the thought as he laid himself back against the tree and stared away in a random direction.

It wasn't long till Auron showed up standing in the shade of a nearby tree.

"So, what are your thoughts about my guess now? Is it still bull to you? Or are you beginning to think I'm right?" he said in a tone with no apparent emotion.

Kouji looked up towards him with a glare and snorted, "I'll never believe in anything as crazy as that."

Auron stared him in the eyes for a bit as if looking for something, and then finally he smirked and said, "Your eyes seem to have different thoughts."

Kouji just grunted and looked away. They stayed in silence for about five minutes, until the rest arrived.

"What happened to her?" Mimi asked breathed rather rapidly while staring down at the unconscious body.

"She passed out." Kouji answered simply.

Ryo walked over and dropped himself down by Kouji breathing heavily. "What was that all about man? Phew…I don't remember ever having to run like that in my life! But I guess it could just be called hard training…"

Matt and Rika just remained silent while catching their breaths.

"Come on everyone, let's make our way to the other side and we'll rest there. Kouji you carry Izumi, now let's go." ordered Auron without any sound of pity in his tone.

They all groaned as they got up again.

Kouji picked Izumi up. She wasn't heavy but it was still going to be hard to walk with her in his arms all the way to the other side of the waterfall, especially after all that running just now. And to add to all that, he knew they were going to make him tell them what happened.

So they all began to walk again listening to what Kouji was telling them. 'If only Kouji was a better storyteller' was the thought going through all their minds. He was telling it all as if he was simply explaining how one plus one equals two. Still and all, it was better than not having a clue.

Though it hardly took half an hour, it seemed to have lasted a lifetime just to walk to the other side. The hardest part of it all, especially for Kouji who had to carry Izumi in his arms in the process, was to get across the river by jumping from rock to rock. It would have been very easy if it hadn't been for the fact that they were all very VERY tired.

When they finally reached a place that seemed to satisfy Auron they all sat down to rest their exhausted bodies. The sun was very low now, signaling that the evening had approached. Izumi was still unconscious lying down by a tree. They had a camp fire lit, and were getting ready to go to sleep. It was decided that Auron would be the first to keep watch since he was the one who made them all get so tired.

Kouji took one last look at Izumi before going to sleep. She had a disturbed look on her face. He wondered what was going on in her mind.

(Izumi's POV)

'_Oww…my head….it feels like someone's banging a rock on it…' She sat up and looked around her. She saw her friends all around her sitting in different places. She felt relieved to finally see them. She frowned as she continued to look around her. _

_She saw a laughing Ryo running followed by a furious, but in a strange way a happy looking Rika, chasing after him with a dagger in her hand._

_She spotted Mimi sitting on a swing humming to herself, and Matt sitting under a tree nearby fooling around with something she couldn't quite make out._

'_This is wrong. Why do they all look so young? They look like they're five years younger at least. Maybe even six…'_

_She turned and saw Kouji leaning against a tree. 'But wait…isn't that the boy I was just chasing after? This is so strange…I don't understand a thing…'_

_Her attention was torn away from him as she heard an all so familiar laugh. 'Amaya…is that you…?'_

_She turned her head to face her friend. She was sitting down picking flowers happily. 'It is her! Oh no…I have to apologize for being so mean to her before…but what if she doesn't forgive me…what if she hates me now…well wasting time will only make things worse…'_

_She began to stand up but she felt sharp pain all through her body. She squeezed her eyes shut to ease the pain a bit, but when she opened them there were dark figures surrounding her. And right before her stood the mysterious cloaked freak that had been chasing her through the forest earlier._

'_wh...Who are y...you? What d...do you w...want from me..?' her mind questioned for she couldn't speak._

_She felt a smirk form on his face and then he replied as if hearing her thoughts, "to kill you of course."_

_She was immobilized from her fear now. She felt so defenseless…she couldn't do anything to save herself…she needed to fight but she lacked the right knowledge of it. Sure she could throw a punch or two but surely that wouldn't be of any help in a fight against a pro._

_Then laughter was heard again. A little girl's laughter that was that Izumi had held in her heart._

'_Ayame?' There she was in front of her. Right in front of the cloaked freak, laughing…_

"_Ayame!'", Izumi cried happily almost forgetting that she was in danger. But then her happiness vanished as Ayame stopped laughing and looked at her with a sad face._

"_You promised you would always watch over me…you promised you wouldn't let me die…you promised you would save me!"_

_Izumi was taken aback surprisingly yet sadly._

"_How can you save me Kouji? How? When you can't even save yourself?" She said again sadly._

'_She's right…who am I trying to fool…I cant save anyone…I…I can't keep these promises I keep on making…'_

"_I…I don't believe in you anymore Izumi! "Screamed Ayame's sad voice and then she disappeared._

_Daggers plugged into Izumi's heart as she heard this. But she didn't have anytime to react for another appeared in front of her._

"_You're not my friend anymore!" shouted amaya and then she disappeared as well._

"_You're not strong!" came Rika and Ryo._

"_You'll never save this world!" came Mimi and Matt._

_Her heart was shattering. 'Why is this happening?'_

"_It's because you are weak." came the voice of the cloaked figure, "Your so called friends have all lost their faith in you now, all because you are a weakling!"_

'_No…I…I…' she felt like crying but the tears wouldn't come out._

"_Here, I'll save you from your misery!" he said as he raised his sword ready to strike._

_Izumi squeezed her eyes shut waiting for the pain to come, but instead she heard a voice. _

"_You'll always be my best friend."_

_She opened her eyes and say the little boy…err the small Kouji. He smiled at her., and then disappeared. In his place came Auron._

"_I will teach you how to fight. Don't be afraid." he said, and then he too disappeared._

_Kouji appeared again, the present Kouji._

"_You are not weak. Get up and carry out the promises you made. You can do it.", he said coldly. But though it sounded cold it felt oh so strong and encouraging. _

_She smiled as he disappeared, 'thank you…I will keep all of them…that is a promise…'_

"_Yet another promise to be broken", came the icy voice. She stared horridly as she watched the sword come down to pierce her heart…_

'_Ahhhhhhhhhhh….' she screamed._

_

* * *

_

She woke up breathlessly, with sweat drops all over her forehead.

"It was only a dream…thank god." she said.

She looked around her.

Everyone was soundly asleep. Her eyes searched around. There. She saw Auron sitting under a tree. He was awake. Relief washed over her. Then one thought aroused in her mind and determination took its place.

She got up and ignored all the pain that went through her body and headed towards him.

She stopped in front of him, and then slowly he looked up at her questioningly.

"Teach me how to fight."

* * *

Pain is what I am feeling,

Confusion is occupying my mind,

I try so hard to keep my promises,

And keep this journey going on,

…Watching Over You…

_tbc_

Okay I've decided that im gonna reply to my reviews from now on, it will make it more interesting for us all. well at least I think so…

**Sparkling-Ruby-Gem** well im glad u like this fic, and im so sorry I took so long to update.

**Izumi Rules**: thanks for the luck, and I did do good. Well I updated, I hope u like it.

**KoumiLoccness**: well ummm, I don't really get ur point there but thanx for the review anyway.

**Eevetta**: its ok that u didn't review in such a long time cuz I didn't update in a long time lol. Well im really glad u like my fic. I hope u like this chappie!

**CrAzY-SiLLy-Me** : ya I updated. Thanx for all ur reviews!

**MaRoNcOoL**:well it looks like the two of us think a bit alike since we both like the same couples.thanx a lot for ur review and I hope u enjoyed this chapter too.

**Kaurama-kasuki**: ya that was the shortest chapter in the world. Personally I thought it was quite stupid cuz I just rushed it. But I guess it wasn't so bad. Glad u liked it anyways. This chapter was the longest I've ever written so I hope it makes up for the last one.

**Anonymouse**: im glad u liked it. Well im not planning on making it an ordinary ending, but I'm not sure if u will like it or not.but it should be good according to what I have in mind. You'll have to read to find out anyway. thanx for reviewing.

**Lilkagome555**:ok im glad u liked it. I emailed u but im not sure if u got it or not. But anyway matt is yamato. Why did I change his name? well cuz when I asked if I should, only izumi rules answered yes so I did. Hope u liked this chappie.

**RedHotPheonix**: cool review lol. Well im glad u think it was cool. I hope u like this chap.

**Okay now that I'm done, did anyone notice that I said glad u liked it in practically everyone? Lol. Im such a boring person when im bored.**

**No suspense questions this time, cuz right now I cant think of any, and im not exactly sure what im gonna write in the next chap. So bare with me all of u, and I hope ur patient, cuz even though im gonna try to update fast, I might not too. So sad… I really don't have enough time on the pc anymore waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!**

**Well sorry again for the late update. Pls leave a review to tell me what u think:comments, opinioins advice, flames…it's all welcome. Till next time…**


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